


Black and White

by Aniel_H



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, BDSM, Case Fic, Explicit Language, M/M, Mild Gore, Nonbinary Hange Zoë, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Past Child Abuse, Stockholm Syndrome, mentions of cannibalism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-03
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-07 12:53:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 38,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4263933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aniel_H/pseuds/Aniel_H
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erwin hates that case. He hates the fact that he is not able to solve it even after so many years. He hates it so much that when a new figure with a strange connection to it appears he is not going to let the opportunity slip through his fingers. No matter what, he was going to catch the Ripper.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! First of all, I want to thank my friend Yasemin, she helped me a whole lot when I was writing this story by being patient with me and reading all of this. Also, any mistakes in the story are mine and I apologize for any incorrect spelling in the story. I think some things in the story won't make much sense until the later chapters, so please be patient. If you have any questions you can also contact me on [tumblr](http://let-iit-rock.tumblr.com) .

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “My name is Erwin Smith,” he said with polite and friendly tone. “I work as a freelance counseling psychologist. You are Levi, is that right?”

Erwin groaned loudly when his oh-so-rare sleep was interrupted. He hid his face into his pillow, groaning even more loudly when the ringing of his phone started to get more and more intense. His silent plea that the ringing would stop eventually was unfortunately unanswered.

After a minute, he finally reached for the vibrating phone on his nightstand table, thinking that the person calling him should rather be dying because if not Erwin was going to make sure they would be soon. He answered it with sleepy and grumpy voice: “Yeah?”

“Erwin, I have some good news for you,” Mike’s voice at the other side of the line sounded calm and nonchalant as if he was calling him in the middle of the day and not night.

Ërwin had a certain rules. One of them was he wouldn’t call or expect anyone else to call him in the middle of the night unless they were on their deathbed. And because Mike didn’t sound to be on the verge of death, Erwin didn’t feel like being especially kind towards him.

“Are kidding me? It’s-” Erwin paused and looked at the blue, shining numbers of his alarm clock. “-3 in the morning. Is it that important?”

“It is.” Mike assured him and Erwin could hear a hint of smugness and eagerness in his voice. “We have something on the Ripper case.”

All the sleepiness which Erwin was feeling a second ago was gone by the time Mike said the last word as a wave of fresh energy and a bit of adrenaline started to rush through his whole body. “Really?” he asked as he was sitting up on the bed, blanket falling from his chest on the floor next to the bed.

Without waiting for an answer, he got up on his feet and walked across the room to his huge cabinet to take one of his suits on. His bedroom was huge, in the colors of red, black and white. Next to the bed were two black bedsides tables, one of them had a clock on it and the other a plant he got from Hange few years ago. The bed had black covers, now unmade, and the pillows were red but now, in the dark, they looked more like black ones. On the other side was a wardrobe with a huge mirror on the doors where Erwin kept other clothes (he had this system - the cabinet was for suits to work and in wardrobe he kept his other clothes and other… stuff). On the other side of the bed was a window and door to the balcony with two chairs and a table.

Mike often said to Erwin that the colors of his bedroom were too aggressive and he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep here and Erwin had to agree with him about the colors and their effects but he didn’t tell him that the aggressiveness of this room was kind of a intention and he liked it.

“Really,” Mike confirmed. “Do you want to hear it now or after you get here?”

Erwin didn’t even had to consider his answer. “Right now.” he said hopping on one foot and desperately trying to keep his balance while he was putting on his pants.

Mike didn’t have to be told twice and immediately began to tell the story with subtle excitement in his voice: “Well, yesterday early in the morning, there was a highway patrol and they noticed a car which had a license plate that was registered as stolen. So, logically, they decided to stop the car. Unfortunately, the driver didn’t stop at their signal and thus started a car chase. Well, long story short, the driver got himself into a car accident and ended up in a ditch. The patrol thought he needed help so they pulled over to the side of the road and went to see how the driver was doing. That turned out to be a huge mistake since the boy was alright enough to kick their asses and flee.”

Erwin who was now trying to tie a blue tie frowned even though he heard the amusement in his friend’s voice. “He escaped?”

“Yes and no.” Mike said, clearly annoyed by Erwin interrupting. “He managed to escape the police patrol and beat them pretty badly but few streets away from there, he ran into other officers and these weren’t stupid enough to get him close to them, so they pulled guns at him and handcuffed him after he surrendered.”

Mike made a pause and Erwin took it as a sign that he could start asking questions. And he had plenty of them on mind: “So, are you going to tell me what he has to do with the Ripper?” was the first one he asked before he left the bedroom and walked through the corridor to the stairs, passing his bathroom and guest room.

“Of course,” Mike’s voice sounded sassy to Erwin’s ears as he was making his way down the stairs quickly, grabbed the car keys from the hanger on the wall next to the main door of his house and before he walked out of them and locked the door. And Mike continued: “Well, there was dried blood on his tshirt but it wasn’t his because he didn’t have any injuries that would correspond with that amount of blood. He refused to tell whose blood it was… actually, now that I think of it, he refused to say anything at all. So, they took his clothes and the sample of his own DNA and handed it to crime lab and found out that… I hope you’re prepared for what I’m going to say… the blood on the tshirt matches Ripper’s DNA! They immediately called us and we took it from here. Hange made their own tests to make sure the results were true. Plus they also noticed he wiped some blood of his sneakers and at the collar of his T-shirt a different stains of blood and ran few more tests. Once again, the blood on both sneakers and T-shirt wasn’t his but unfortunately, neither was Ripper’s but someone else's - it belongs to two other, different people and we have no idea whose it is. So now we have him in our hold.”

Erwin let out a breath. The excitement he was feeling was not far from indescribable. He felt the blood rushing through his veins, burning, and there were so many thoughts on his mind, it was hard to recognize one thought from another - how was the boy connected to the Ripper? Why was there his blood on the boy’s T-shirt? Whose was the other blood and the sneakers? But most important question - would this be the key to stop the Ripper?

Finally some clue that didn’t come in a form of a dead body that wouldn’t make them make any big progress anyway. This could be their hope and Erwin couldn’t help but imagine the Ripper in handcuffs and getting a sentence he deserved.

The image filled him with resolution he hadn’t felt since he left the work of a Criminal Investigation Department forensic psychologist and became more of a freelance consultant for them. He had his own patients now and an office in downtown.

“Erwin?” His thinking was interrupted by Mike’s calm voice. “Are you still there?”

“Yes,” Erwin answered and climbed into his black SUV. “I’m on my way.”

“Okay,” his friend said. “After you get here, I’ll tell you one more thing.”

Erwin wanted to ask him what but he knew that voice - Mike wanted to see his face when he would be telling him the news and there had never been a point to ask Mike anything he didn’t want to answer. So Erwin just ended the call, fastened his seatbelt and left his property.

It was too soon in the morning for the traffic to be heavy and Erwin was driving as fast as possible the whole way to the CID headquarters. It was situated not far from the downtown. It was a tall, large building with few underground floors that not many knew about. It had flat roof, few windows, mainly in the bigger offices, and only one main entrance. It was said that there were also emergency exits but Erwin honestly never found them during the years he worked there. The car park in front of the building was big enough for most of the people who worked here to park their car there and for environment, there was a lot of trees.

When Erwin opened the door of his car, now a bit grounded and calm and in control of his excitement, he realized just how cold it was outside. It was end of the September and few days ago fell the first snow already even though it didn’t last even the first night.

And of course Erwin forgot his coat on the hanger.

His teeth started chattering and Erwin decided not to waste time here in the cold. He locked the car and headed towards the main door to the building as quick as possible without running.

When he entered the building, he was stopped by security guards in the long maintenance hall while the duo was sitting behind a desk. He knew both of them from before but even so, they asked him to show his access card. The blond searched his pockets only to realize he probably left it home.

What followed was a short argument with the guards - he was trying to explain them that Mike invited him there but they said that he couldn’t go there without his card. Fortunately, before Erwin even could ask them to call Mike or Hange, Nanaba, Mike’s partner, appeared around the corner of the entrance hall. She was wearing her usual dark-blue pantsuit and a smile on her soft lips. When she walked closer, Erwin noticed that there were also dark circles under her eyes covered by her usual light make-up and she was holding a file in her hand.

“What’s wrong, gentlemen?” she asked in gentle and kind voice.

It was her good and kind nature that had most people think she wasn’t able to get angry or beat someone up but Erwin had witnessed more than once when she handled herself several suspects on her own. She was indeed terrifying in her own, special way.

“Mr. Smith doesn’t have his access card, so we can’t-”

“I see.” Nanaba interrupted him with sweet voice and professional smile on her lips. “I’ll take it from here, then. It’s on me, if something happens.”

The guard who was arguing with Erwin moment ago looked a bit pissed but eventually let Nanaba sign a paper that assert Erwin was her responsibility and if something happened it would be on her head, and finally let them pass.

After that, they left the entrance hall and walked deeper into the building. The corridors were mostly empty at this hour and cleaned. Few times, they met people standing close to vending machines and looking extremely tired.

“So, tell me more about the boy,” Erwin demanded after they got in an elevator and thus nobody couldn’t hear them.

Nanaba handed him the file first and the elevator started moving downwards to underground levels. As Erwin was opening it, Nanaba started talking: “I think Mike already told you about how we got him. When they called us with the connection to the Ripper it was already 8 p.m. We all got to the police station where he was being held in detention and got him to the HQ as soon as possible. He’s now in one of our detention cells and didn't said a word since he got here. He just keep looking around and doesn’t respond to anything we say.”

“Why didn’t you call me sooner?” Erwin asked, feeling a bit offended that they left him out of this. And quickly looking through the file. There was a picture of a young boy with undercut, black hair that looked like he was cutting them himself, steel-grey eyes with an especially dark circle under the left one and a huge black eye on the other one. Erwin assumed the police officers were responsible for that. His face was otherwise youthful but when Erwin focused more, he found out that his cheeks were hollowed… he didn’t want to make any conclusions before he had an opportunity to speak with him but he looked bony.

Nanaba gave him an apologetic smile. “We wanted to call you earlier in the morning but then Hange ran another test of the boy’s own DNA and the test had showed a match twenty-five percent with the Ripper and we kinda... forgot. You can imagine how excited we were about the information.”

Erwin stopped to breath for few seconds with shock and surprise. This was the biggest clue they’d had in years and possibly in all the time of investigation when they realized they’d had a serial killer here. Erwin was completely sure that if they managed to get the boy talking, they could catch the Ripper very soon.

“So, is his either grandparent, uncle, or aunt.” Erwin said as they were getting off and elevator on the interrogation floor. It didn’t have any windows but it was well lit and the offices in this floor were mostly used for talking with the criminals. This hallway wasn’t as empty as the one in the first floor. At the end of it was a waiting room where Erwin saw Hange in their typical labcoat with Moblit, as always, by their side and behind them was Mike sitting on a bench, watching Erwin and Nanaba approaching with a smile smirk on his lips.

Hange looked as excited as Erwin was feeling, but he didn’t let it show the way they did. They were walking around like someone who’d had more coffee than was healthy but everybody in the room knew that they didn’t drink coffee… or more specifically, they forbid Hange from drinking coffee. It was dangerous for them and for everybody else because they were very active even without it. When he got closer to them, he also noticed that Hange’s hair were, once again, complete mess and they looked like they didn’t shower for days.

“Yes,” Nana agreed.

“Have you found any of relatives?” Erwin asked and nodded at his friends a greeting. Hange smiled at him, Moblit nodded in return and Mike waved at him.

“We did!” Hange yelled before anybody else could say anything. “Now, prepare yourself! The guy is on the list of missing persons!”

Erwin widened his eyes. Today had been full of surprises it seemed. “Missing persons?” he asked and looked into the file again, on the boy’s picture. Now that he was giving it attention, he looked somehow older when a person was looking into his eyes and there definitely started to be wrinkles around his eyes. But he didn’t recognize the face which meant that he was on that list for some time.

“Yes,” Mike answered. “His name is Levi Ackerman and his mother reported it over eight years ago! Which is unusual… in most cases, by this time we would’ve only found his decomposed body. We already got the report that was written about it. She lived in the Underground and worked there most likely as a prostitute. The boy was thirteen at the time he was reported missing. According to the mother, he just didn’t come home from school one day. The police thought he just ran away and didn’t bother to investigate it any further even though she returned a big amount of times and begged them to start a proper investigation.”

Erwin nodded in acknowledgement and continued with asking: “You said lived, right? Where is she now?”

Although he didn’t really need to ask. Underground was problematic part of town and murders, robberies and other criminal activities took place there on daily basics.

Mike’s smirk disappeared and he suddenly looked very bitter. “Passed away two weeks ago. She was suffocated at her home, according to report… took more than a week for anyone to find her body. Her own mother died when she was eight, her father when she was fifteen and her brother was in military before he went MIA more than fifteen years ago at the age of twenty, so he is presumed dead.”

“Fuck.” Erwin was hardly one for swearing but right now, they were indeed in pretty fucked up situation, if they didn’t manage to get the boy to speak with them.

“Yes,” Mike agreed with a slight nod. “Fuck indeed. He is not supposed to have any living family but his grandfather was known to sleep around so it’s possible he has another aunt or uncle we don’t even know about.”

Erwin stood there for a while, thinking how to proceed, when suddenly a thought occurred his mind and he frowned: “How come the results didn’t show match with a missing person's when we first ran the test of Ripper’s blood?”

Hange made a gloomy face at that, clearly displeased about whatever they were going to say: “Well, it’s fault of the policemen who were investigating his kidnapping. As Mike told you - his mother was a prostituted from the Underground so nobody really thought about looking into it properly. They thought he would be back in few days. You know? Just a kid messing around, doing some drugs. Anyway, after the few days, they just said themselves that one skinny kid didn’t matter. Of course, Mike already informed Nile about the fault in the system and he should find those who didn’t follow the protocol if they still work for police.”

Erwin had to take a deep breath and rolled his eyes. Now he understood Hange’s gloominess - it was such a bad luck that this particular boy hadn’t been registered in the system. If he was, perhaps they would had this case solved a long time ago, many victims could be still alive and they’d find the kid before his mother died.

Nanaba put her hand on his shoulder and spoke in sympathy: “I know. It’s hard to believe how unlucky we are, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” the blonde man signed and before asking: “And how did you manage to recognize him?”

Once again, it was Hange who answered him. “We went through face scan and it matched how the face of a little boy would have looked like at this age.

“I see.. and where is he now?”

“Waiting for you to get something out of him.” Hange answered and pointed at one of the doors leading to interrogation rooms.

That was when Moblit finally said something: “Um, Erwin, I think you should look at some of the pictures they took, when he was at medical examination after they managed to arrest him.”

Erwin had planned to do just that but said nothing and rather opened the file he was handed few minutes ago. Just as he thought, Levi was very skinny to the point he could see shapes of his ribs under the skin. It was also a small miracle he recognized his ribs under so heavy bruised skin. He had them nearly everywhere on his body, both legs and arms and almost his whole back were in yellow and green. Yes, few of the were fresh and purple, but he got most of them some time ago. Erwin exchanged look with his friends before he looked back at the first page to make sure he remembered the age correctly and then went back to the photos. He looked very short for twenty-three years old young man and this height made him look more like a teenager than a physically adult person.

“I understand,” he said, trying not to make conclusions before he’d seen the boy. “Do you have tapes of any interrogations with him?”

Mike nodded and got on his feet to lead him into one of the rooms. It had many monitors and computers that were connected to all the interrogation rooms in this floor. It was dark in there and Mike turned on the light before walking across the room to the only running computer.

Erwin could see Levi on the screen. He was sitting in a small room with only four walls, table and two chairs opposite each other. He looked passive and didn’t move at all, the only sign that he was alive was his breathing and occasionally blinking.

Mike sat down to the computer and turned on another monitor where he found a folder with several video files and played him the first one.

Erwin could feel the others standing in the door frame but he decided to focus more on the video footages.

They all went exactly how Mike told him - Levi didn’t respond at all no matter how the people on the footages approached him and whoever they were, first it was the policemen and then Mike and others. They tried the patient talk, they tried to yell at him, they tried to threatening him subtly and they walked circles around him.

The only moment, when he did showed any emotion was at the end of the last footage. Nanaba pretended to lose her temper and banged the table that was between her and Levi and then she raised up from her chair.

It was almost invisible and Erwin had to ask Mike to return the footage few seconds back to see it again but after he saw it again he was sure of it. When Nanaba started to be physically aggressive, Levi winced a bit, looked at the floor in submission and leaned back in the chair. They were all small moves so it was no wonder Nanaba or others didn’t notice it. Plus after few moments Levi was looking back at Nanaba this time with a slight frown between his eyebrows and with more tense posture.

“Did you see it?” Mike asked and turned to the other blonde man.

Erwin nodded and looked back. “It’s possible we have here a victim of abuse but I need to speak with him to make sure.”

“Okay, what do you need us to do?” Mike stared at him with curiosity in his eyes.

Erwin thought about it only for a second before he came up with a plan. “Has he had any food since he was arrested?”

Mike raised an eyebrow at the question but answered regardless: “None that I know of.”

He looked back at Hange, Nanaba and Moblit and all of them shook their heads.

“Good,” Erwin smiled, happy to hear that. “Could you order me a pizza?”

Everybody widened their eyes at the request.

* * *

 

“You are pretty evil person, you know that?” Nanaba muttered, as she was handing Erwin a box and a bottle of water. The pizza in the box was smelling wonderfully and Erwin could feel the warmness of it in his fingers..

He knew the boy inside would be hungry and he decided to use food as a bridge between them that would get Erwin to him and made him talk.

He opened the door to interrogation room with one hand, holding the box in the other and the bottle with other and walked in.

Levi looked up at him with those piercing grey eyes, slightly narrowing at the interrupter. Erwin only smiled at him and said: “Hello.”

Erwin knew he looked ridiculous - blonde man in a suit carrying pizza and a bottle of water but he guessed that given the situation, it could have been worse. Plus, ridiculous usually didn’t come hand in hand with ‘dangerous’ and right now he needed to convince Levi he wasn’t a threat.

Levi himself looked still very uninterested and passive. He was wearing a shirt and pants that were given to him probably at the police station and were too big on him.

It didn’t surprise the blond he didn’t get any response from Levi, so the blond just kept smiling and sat down in the chair across from Levi and put the box with pizza on the table between them. Levi looked at the fragrant food with hunger before looking back at Erwin now with annoyance in his eyes and didn’t look back at the food again even though Erwin could see he wanted. He definitely had a strong will. But first things first.

“My name is Erwin Smith,” he said with polite and friendly tone. “I work as a freelance counseling psychologist. You are Levi, is that right?”

Levi didn’t respond again and instead stared at the wall behind Erwin’s back.

Erwin was being careful with his every move, gesture and his posture. He needed to be. One wrong movement and he could lose Levi.

The blond gave Levi the most trustworthy smile he was capable of and nonchalantly leaned closer but not enough to enter the other man’s personal space or to startle him.

Then he saw something strange. Levi used Erwin’s movement to focus on the watch on his left wrist, clearly trying to figure out what time was it. Then Levi noticed that Erwin noticed and he instinctively looked down on the floor only to look up angrily again the next second.

Erwin couldn’t let this body language go without mentioning it - it would have looked like he wanted to keep something from Levi, like he was there only to observe him. And Erwin was here to talk. “Do you want to know what time is it?” he asked.

Levi looked up again, confused.

“It’s nearly four in the morning.” Erwin informed the other man after quick look at his watches. “Is it important? Do you have a place to be today?”

His questions seemed only confused Levi more but before the boy could ignore him again, his stomach made a very loud noise. Levi’s eyes widened with shock and his ears turned red with embarrassment and he gulped nervously.

It was the first real reaction he showed that actually fit his age and Erwin felt his lips curling up with a soft smile that hopefully didn’t look like a sneer. “You know, that’s why I brought the pizza actually. You must be hungry.”

Levi frowned again and their eyes met. Erwin saw how he started to over-analyze Erwin’s words, thinking about them and trying to find a trap in them. Erwin was glad because he finally started to recognize Levi’s body language and when there appeared a small wrinkle just between Levi’s eyebrows, he was thinking and being suspicious.

“Well, if you don’t want any…” Erwin opened the box, took a slice and bit into it. Hange who was the one who ordered the pizza chose topping with ham, sausage, cheese and red onion. It was delicious and Levi was watching him with real hunger in his eyes.

“I don’t eat pizza.”

Erwin didn’t let any surprise show in his face when he heard Levi’s husky, raspy voice. It was surprisingly deep for someone who looked like a teenager and it was clear he wasn’t using it lately.

“You don’t like pizza?” Erwin asked with raised eyebrows because really… who didn’t like pizza?

Levi looked a bit indecisive at first but eventually, he answered: “No, I just… It’s unhealthy.”

Erwin frowned slightly, trying to understand. He decided to chew longer than necessary while he was trying to figure it out. After he swallowed, he asked carefully: “You mean you’ve never eaten it?”

Levi nodded in confirmation slowly after a while of silence.

“Then why don’t you try it? I’m pretty sure one time won’t do you any harm.” in the moment the words left Erwin’s mouth, Levi literally threw himself into eating, got hold of the nearest slice of pizza and took so large bite that Erwin was afraid he might choke himself with it.

The blond chuckled lightly and Levi shot him an annoyed look but didn’t say anything and rather took another bite and chewed aggressively.

“Do you want water?” Erwin asked, took the bottle and moved it closer to the boy.

Levi was still wary of him, leaning as further from him as possible but at least he got some food into him and some words out of him and after he ate good half of the pizza, which was a lot for someone so small and skinny, he was full and drunk some of the water. After that, he stared at Erwin again.

“So, did you like it?” was Erwin’s next question.

“It was okay.” Levi said with calm voice, this time right after Erwin gave him a question.

“What is your favorite food, Levi?” he asked hoping the subject was neutral enough to start a conversation.

Levi seemed to be still wary of him, like an animal that had been in presence of the human for the first time. “I don’t have any.”

“I see,” Erwin smiled. “Mine is apple pie.”

Levi snorted mockingly and sneered at him:  “That’s not surprising. You look like a typical golden boy.”

Erwin chuckled, he was both amused by Levi’s words and glad that he was capable of a normal conversation. “What about you? Where do you live?”

He realized immediately that it had been a very wrong, wrong question to ask. Levi’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out. His shoulders became tense and there was such horror in his eyes, it scared even Erwin.

“I-I…” Levi choked on his own words and started hyperventilate. One of his trembling hands found way to his torso, probably trying to ease the pain in his chest which wasn’t uncommon in these kind of situations. Erwin was a brilliant psychologist but even a shitty one would knew when his patient was having a panic attack.

“Levi, listen to me, what you are feeling is scary but not dangerous. Nobody can hurt you now.” Erwin said with soothing and kind voice. “Concentrate on your breathing and stay here with me.” he didn’t reach for Levi - the boy didn’t know him and a touch from anyone, especially a stranger, could do more harm than good when he was experiencing a panic attack.

Unfortunately, Erwin’s words had no effect. Levi jumped on his feet and ran to the door. He was so fast Erwin could hardly see him and before the psychologist managed to get up, Levi escaped the room.

“Levi, wait!” Erwin yelled after him and quickly followed him out.

But the chase after Levi had already been over by the time Erwin left the room. Mike apparently caught Levi and had him now kneeling with his head on the floor and both of his hands twisted behind back. Moblit held Hange back, saying to them to be careful while they were trying to get closer to Levi and Nanaba was pointing with her gun at Levi’s head.

It was so, so bad.

“Let me go, damn it!” Levi growled like a cornered animal and despite the gun pointing at him, he continued trying to free himself from Mike’s iron grip. “I need to go back to him!”

“Levi,” Erwin quickly walked towards them and gently pushed Nanaba aside so he could stand between her gun and Levi, using once again calming and soothing voice: “There is no danger here. Everything’s going to be alright. Just try to focus on my voice. You can get through this. Try to breath with me, okay? One and two breath in, and three and four breath out. One… two…” Levi was still trembling but closed his eyes at the sound of Erwin’s voice and frowned, concentrating at staying here in presence and trying not to slip back in the past. He tried to breath at Erwin’s counting and after few minutes, he finally stopped hyperventilating but he still looked wrecked with the sweat on his forehead and trembling body. Erwin nodded at Mike to let him know it was okay to let go of Levi now. Mike didn’t look exactly convinced but trusted Erwin’s judgement and let Levi go.

The boy didn’t run again and rather looked Erwin in the eyes with hatred as if what was happening to him now was Erwin’s fault and snarled lowly: “Fuck you!”

Mike looked like he wanted to punch him but Erwin quickly shook his head at him again and turned back to Levi: “Do you want to go back into the room?”

“No,” Levi said so coldly it sent shivers down to Erwin’s spine. “I want to go fucking home!”

“And where do you live?” Erwin asked, hoping a bit that Levi was still a bit delirious and would tell him that.

But Levi didn’t answer. He gave him a murderous look instead and spat at Erwin’s feet.

The blond gave few more tries to get Levi to talking to him again but the smaller man just closed up into himself and ignored him exactly how he had ignored the others before. After half an hour, when Erwin was sure there wouldn’t be any more progress today, he let Mike call the security and they took Levi away to his cell.

“You made him talk, Erwin, I can’t believe it!” Hange said with enthusiasm and a big smile on their faces.

“He didn’t tell me more than ten sentences, Hange.” Erwin answered bitterly.

“But you still managed it in few minutes what we all were trying to do it all night.” Hange gave him a big smile.

Erwin nodded. Yes, it was a start but he still had a long way to go with Levi. He needed to find out the reason behind the panic attack. Everything up until now had pointed to abusive behaviour probably on a part of a man. The way Levi also tried to escape back to the person who was probably responsible for his bruises could also mean Stockholm syndrome.

He let out a frustrated huff. He knew it wasn’t Levi’s fault and he still wanted to help him but it complicated things so much. Stockholm syndrome was going to take time - victims didn’t usually wanted to turn in their abusers.

“I think he has Stockholm syndrome,” he said his thoughts aloud.

Everybody gave him gloomy looks and nobody had to say anything for Erwin to knew they agreed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this chapter is so short but don't worry; from now on, I'll try to always write chapters at least 5k words long. Also, I'm sorry there's not Levi in this chapter but don't worry, there'll be plenty of him in the next one. Once again, all mistakes are mine and you can find me on my [tumblr](http://let-iit-rock.tumblr.com) if you have any questions. :)

Erwin wasn’t going to lie he felt worn out and in terrible need for a coffee. He stayed with others at the CID headquarters few more hours, and together they went through the evidence they’d collected on the Ripper during the last six years.

They all had a theory that the Ripper had in fact started his killing at least eight years ago, and after about two of those years being unnoticed by the public, he’d decided to leave a signature on the crime scene - a small cut on his victims foreheads; a thin line, carved after they died.

The area where the Ripper was killing was large. Sometimes he killed in Maria City or Rose City but usually his ‘territory’ was Sina and every single time it was places where weren’t any street cameras - dark alleys or parks. His victims were both men and women, old and young, rich and poor; it was as if he simply didn’t care whom he killed as long as he took someone’s life. Normally, the Ripper simply slit the throats of his victims - that was why he’d started being called the Ripper in the newspapers soon after it had became clear that they had a serial killer in the area. He always used the same knife for both, slicing the throat and the line on his victim's’ forehead. But there were few victims who had put up a fight. That was how they got his DNA. He had to kill these with an effort, usually stabbing them if the slit didn’t work and they had noticed him trying to sneak up on them. They found the DNA under their fingernails but didn’t find a match in the database.

For now, the number of victims had been minimally twenty five but more likely twice as much. It was only logical; during the first two years of killing without gaining the public’s attention, he could had done how he pleased and no one would connect the homicides but after being known for a serial killer, he had to be much more careful with when and where he would kill his victims.

Erwin and the rest of the team knew the Ripper was most likely a male in his late thirties or early forties. They also had few pieces of video footage which showed an older man with short dark hair, wearing a sunglasses despite the fact the footage was taken during night, and in most cases, the Ripper was in long, black coat and a bowler hat. 

There were no survivors of his attacks. No evidence that would help with finding out his identity. No hand-prints. Nothing. Erwin’d hated the Ripper from the very first time they’d started to suspect they had a serial killer in their cities. He hated him almost as much as he’d hated the Titans.

It was nine in the morning and three cups of coffee (and Nanaba’s babbling about how he is going to have a heart attack from the amount of caffeine in his body) later that Erwin had to get his things and go home. He had an appointment with a patient scheduled at ten and it wouldn’t gain him good reputation if he arrived late.

He said his goodbye to others who were leaving as well - they spent the whole night here after all and had been much more tired than Erwin. The building was already full with people coming to work and most of them knew the blond, even if just by a sight. Erwin returned their greetings and at the security desk, he smiled politely, and maybe even a bit smugly, at the guards there. He walked across the, now full, parking lot and found his SUV.

Erwin stayed in the car and just sat there for few minutes. He just had to get Levi to talk about the Ripper. The killer had been here for too long and done so much damage to so many people and their families. They had to catch him at any cost.

Erwin eventually sighed, fastened his seat-belt and started the car. The traffic was easy and Erwin thought about going straight to his office in town instead of home because he had the feeling that no matter how tired he felt, he wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway; mainly because of the amount of caffeine in his body. In the end, he did just that but made a stop for another coffee in a shop near to his office. While he was paying for it, he could practically hear Nanaba’s disapproving voice in his head but he shut it quickly, thanked for the coffee and headed to his office.

It was a busy day and there was a lot of people on the streets but only after few minutes, Erwin made his way through the crowd to his destination.

The building in which his office was situated was white with red roof and windows in direction of one of the city parks - people usually found the green of nature calming and that was one of reason why Erwin chose this place for his office. Another was that the rooms in which he talked with his patients had soundproof walls. Without them, the blond didn’t think he’d had made his office there considering there was a  pharmacy and a tea shop in the first floor and a lot of people visited it. Fortunately, the entrance doors were separated and while the door on the left led to the tea shop and the pharmacy, the door on the right led to a staircase with Erwin’s psychology office upstairs.

Erwin unlocked the door, happy that nobody was waiting for him in front of it, walked the short corridor with blue paintings on the walls and climbed the stairs slowly. Sometimes patients tend to come early and became anxious if he wasn’t in the office. For that reason, Erwin came an hour early if he could manage it.

The waiting room was simple - chairs were comfortable, made of light wood, with white cushions on them, and in the shape of an L around a long, low table with few magazines about art and gardening on it.

He didn’t have an assistant or secretary since he didn’t have that much patients because that he was often out with CID agents or had to create profiles for criminals for them.

Erwin walked across the room to his office and opened. The office was spacious. There was a desk in front of his bookcase which covered most of one of the walls in the room. He had a laptop on the top of the desk in which he kept most of the documents that contained information about his patients and usually, he took it home with him. Of course, he also had the most important facts printed and locked in a safe behind few books - a fact only Mike and Hange knew about. There was also a carpet under two comfortable, beige chairs, coffee table and a divan. All of the furniture were part of a set and matched together perfectly, together with few paintings on the walls.

Erwin preferred light and calming colors in the office. People usually didn’t pay attention to this details but the blond knew how important the colors of surroundings were to people even if they themselves didn't realize it.

The blond opened the windows to get some fresh air in, hid the car keys into the top drawer of his desk and turned on his laptop. While the computer was trying to get start up with terrible whirring noise (Hange told him many times to actually replace the old piece of junk), he looked who was going to be his first patient today.

It was Mikasa Ackerman and Erwin didn’t know how to feel about it. She had some serious problems with opening herself to anyone and she was being overprotective of her adoptive brother to the point where she’d beaten up three of her fellow students at the university she was visiting. Which was precisely the reason why she ended up going to Erwin’s psychotherapy. The university president insisted that she’d visit some kind of a therapist, otherwise, she could be expelled.

Erwin gathered all the documents he had about her, his notebook and a pencil. Then the only thing that was left was for her to arrive - usually in company of her adoptive mother. It took him few minutes during which he was just checking his emails before he noticed an icon on the screen of his phone announcing new email. The sender was Mike and Erwin opened it, quickly reading the content and eager at whatever Mike sent to him.

He’d hoped it would be about Levi’s case and it was. Apparently, Zackly wanted to be done with Levi as soon as possible and he already had the city and the owner press the charges for stealing the car. The trial date was set almost three months from now, on the 8th of January. What a way to celebrate New Year, thought Erwin bitterly. Three months seemed terribly short time to get Levi talk if the other man were to remain in the custody of the CID. Especially after the events of this morning when Erwin unknowingly caused the panic attack - Levi would instinctively associate Erwin with a panic attack and that wasn’t good.

His train of thoughts was interrupted by noises in the waiting room and the blond immediately got on his feet, turned off the laptop because the noise was just terrible, and straightened the suit before walking out to greet whoever came.

It was, unsurprisingly, Mikasa and her mother, Carla Yeager.

Erwin put on a professional smile on his lips before walking towards the older woman and shook hand with her on greetings: “Good morning, Mrs. Yeager, it’s good to see you again.”

“Good morning,” Carla said with small smile on her lips, looking a bit tired.

Mikasa greeted with simple and soft: “Hello.”

It was their fourth meeting and Mikasa didn’t need to hear again what to do; she walked into Erwin’s office through the door he left opened for her and sat onto the divan. Erwin waited until she was inside before he turned to her mother to ask: “How is she doing?”

“She didn’t get into another fight, thank God,” Carla answered quietly so the young lady wouldn’t hear her. “But one of the professors said she still doesn’t talk to anyone since she and Eren got there... or, well... except for Eren and Armin and it troubles me a bit.”

Erwin nodded knowingly and with a polite smile said: “I’ll speak with her about it. I’ll see you in a hour as always.”

“Alright, I suppose I'll see you later, Mr. Smith.” Carla left the waiting room, going back outside and Erwin returned to office. Mikasa, knowing already what usually followed, was looking as always indifferent and a bit bored but Erwin already knew that under all of her was a very sensitive and perceptive person.

“So, Mikasa, how was your week?” the blond asked as he was sitting down in the opposite chair.

The following 55 minutes, Erwin spent talking with Mikasa. It improved and Mikasa talked more now. During their first session four weeks ago, Erwin had to do most of the talking. He was glad that Mikasa took his advice and found a hobby and got accepted in the university’s volleyball team (though it looked like she didn’t get along with the team’s captain, Annie). After that, they talked mostly about her relationships with others. He tried, most of time, explain to her that if she loved somebody else than Eren it wouldn’t mean she loved him any less and finally, it looked like she took his advice and even planned to go to a party she, Eren and Armin were invited to.

Erwin couldn’t help but notice the similarity between her and Levi. She had been as passive and silent like him. Or at least at first.

After Mikasa’s mother came for her and both of them left, Erwin had two more appointments and then nothing. He wrote down his patients’ progresses, checked his emails again and decided to accept two new patients, the other ones he had to decline since his capacity was very much full and he was also busy.

Then, he left the office, went to get grocery and then home.

Erwin also stopped by his favorite bakery on his way home since he avoided the main road to home anyway (mainly because of his bad experiences with the traffic jams there) and bought fresh baked bread.

His house was in the middle of a good neighborhood with small garden that was currently under heavy, autumn rain. The winter was coming, Erwin thought gloomily. It was pretty big house and the blond often felt uncomfortable here these days.. actually, it had been that way ever since he and his wife divorced and she left him for their friend. It’d been over year and half ago, she’d said he was just too obsessed with the Ripper and his case and she felt like she couldn’t compare with it, that no matter what, the Ripper would always mean more to Erwin than she did.

Erwin had to agree with her - he hadn’t been a very good husband at that time and probably still wouldn’t be right now. His obsession had been one of the reasons he’d had to end his work at the CID. The case had been just destroying him; slowly, quietly and inconspicuously like a tumor and before Erwin’d noticed, he had been just too deep in the case to let go like a normal person would do.

Fortunately, he had Mike who had literally forced him out of the case and denied him any information about the Ripper for another year and half, he had kept him in completely dark about the case except for the information Erwin’d gotten from TV, until he was sure, Erwin was healthy enough to be part of the investigation again.

Erwin sighed, suddenly feeling very exhausted and it had nothing to do with the lack of sleep. When he entered the door, he hung up the car keys, closed it behind him and went further into his too empty house.

On his left was the door leaving into his dining room that was connected with kitchen and next to the big grey fridge were door leading into his, mostly empty, pantry. It’d all stayed decorated the way his ex-wife decided it would be - everything in the dining room was woody and beige and the kitchen was in white colors.

Erwin put the grocery in the fridge and the bread in the bread box before going into his bedroom to change the clothes. He decided he would try to calm his mind by exercising and just started to get undressed when his phone rang.

The tall blond frowned and let the shirt and the jacket of his suit fall on the bed and took the phone out of the pocket to see it was Mike again.

“Yes?” Erwin asked into the phone, wondering and worrying what what was the reason for which Mike called him the second time the same day. After all, they agreed Erwin would interrogate Levi tomorrow.

“Erwin, we’ve got a new crime scene.” Mike’s voice would probably sound indifferent to someone else's ears but Erwin heard a hint of strangely mixed excitement and remorse in Mike’s voice. Another body, then.

“Where?” the shorter blond asked, giving his t-shirt for exercise back into the wardrobe. Usually, Erwin wouldn’t wear the same suit twice the same day - it was one of his old habits he hadn’t even tried to break; he’d always been very conscious about his appearance. Perhaps it was his mother's fault, she was a good woman she just… liked garden parties very much and usually dragged her son with her, presenting him like a stallion on an exhibition. Yes, she had been (and still was) very proud of her only child and loved him endlessly and she always wanted others to see him like that, too. Especially after Erwin’s father death.

His train of thoughts was interrupted by Mike’s voice: “It’s in the Stohess district, Marshall’s street. You know the building that used to be a theater? That one that got closed twenty years ago after the main star moved to Mitras?”

“Yeah,” Erwin nodded. Marshall’s street technically belonged to the Stohess district but now this part of town was more known as the ‘Underground City’. It was because around twenty years ago (shortly after they closed the theater) they’d closed a factory that was a main source of livelihood for its citizen. If Erwin remembered correctly, the owner and managing director had been sentenced for tax evasion and had been put in prison. After that, this part of town got very poor and now was more known for its unusually high criminal activity.

Underground City was also the main hunting ground of the Ripper with almost half of his victims was from this part of Sina City.

“I’ll get there as soon as possible.” Erwin said and started to get dressed again.

To get into the Underground, Erwin chose the faster way through the middle-class part of town. The other choice would be through the area where upper class of citizens lived. It was kind of irony that the Underground was placed right next to the wealthiest streets in Sina. One second you were driving in nice neighborhood full of family parties and happy laughs and very expensive cars, and the next you could see a woman so skinny she could be a school skeleton.

The theater which Erwin drove to definitely seen better days. Its building was covered in graffiti, some vulgar, some just stating the artist’s name, the plaster was completely missing on some parts of it, mainly around the doors and small windows and he could see the bricks under it.

The police man who stood there, in front of the police tape, apparently recognized Erwin because he only nodded at him and lifted the tape, so Erwin could pass under it after he got through the small crowd of local citizens who were curious at what happened. They all were giving him strange looks.

“Hey, you!” Erwin heard one of them yelling at him. “Aren’t you Smith from TV?”

Erwin ignored him. He was frequently on TV, never saying anything just being mentioned as one of the investigators of the Ripper’s case.

“Yeah! When are you gonna catch that fucker?” another voice continued but Erwin didn’t answer to him either.

He didn’t have to be told about his absolute failure about the Ripper. Nobody could tell him something he already didn’t tell himself.

The main door were nailed with pieces of wood but there was enough of the ones that were missing for a person to be able scrape between them. Erwin knew it was frequently used by the look of cigarette bugs that were lying in front of the door and then inside the theater.

There was a lot of dust and a lot of footprints everywhere Erwin could see. Another proof that some kids or maybe gangs used this place as a hideout, though the kids seemed like a more likely option. The lobby was long and empty of any furniture. There was staircase at the end led probably to the auditorium and stage.

“Erwin.” the addressed man turned around to see Mike standing there, looking even more sleepy than Erwin and under his eyes were unusual bags. He was wearing the same suit as in the morning and he was holding a file under his armpits.

“Mike,” Erwin returned the greetings and walked towards his friend who was handing him a flashlight. “I suppose this is about the Ripper?”

“Nope,” to Erwin’s surprise, Mike shook his head, turned around and went deeper into the theater expecting his friend to follow him. And Erwin did. “Everything points to the Titans.”

Erwin fought the urge to groan. Titans were… well, nobody really knew what they were but Erwin guessed something between a cult and a gang. They seemed to have absolutely no leader, and just like with the Ripper, their victims were completely random. But there was a difference between them and the Ripper - unlike him, they attacked anywhere, at any time and it always was a cannibal attack.

The worst thing was that even if they managed to catch one of them the person said nothing. They didn’t ask for a lawyer, they didn’t drink anything, didn’t eat anything and their looks were just… empty. They were like walking corpses and almost always committed suicide when the police was too close to one of them. At the rare occasions they managed to catch one of them and then put them in prison or a mental institution, they had always found a way kill themselves within a month.

Another difference between the Ripper and them was that the Ripper only killed in the cities whereas the Titans weren’t afraid to attack in the country; there was even a one case from ten years ago when they’d killed every person in a small village and by the time the police had gotten there, the only remaining thing they found were their bodies.

Mike led him to one of the balconies. The furniture everywhere was either broken or stolen like in the lobby and there was nothing but dust and dry rot on the wooden vault.

In the moment Erwin heard Mike mention Titans, he steeled himself for the worst. It wasn’t good to expect anything else from a Titan attack. And he was right. He could smell the bodies before he saw them. Erwin was so used to violence and death and he did not feel the urge to puke anymore, unlike one of the policeman who was bent in waist outside of the room.

The bodies were still on the floor but given the color of the skin, they had been there for some time. One of them was a young, blonde man in threadbare suit that had been too large for him and the other was young girl with red hair in pigtails and still opened, empty eyes.

Both of them had few bite marks over their whole bodies - arms, legs, stomachs but the deadly ones were probably on their necks. Their throats were bitten off, literally.

But Erwin didn’t enter, or at least not right away. He wanted to properly examine the room before he’d do anything else. There was so much blood everywhere and so much footprints on the floor but Erwin didn’t think he saw more footprints than of five people, maximally. He frowned at the fact.

Two of them had to be victims’ and the Titans usually attacked in groups from seven to fifteen people, sometimes more but rarely less. Another strange fact was that the flesh was only half chewed and spat out on the floor - usually, Titans ate the flesh they bit off.

“Did Hange secure the evidence?” Erwin turned around to look at Mike who was standing next to him, feeling strangely numb to all of this, which scared him but he didn’t let it show on his face.

His friend nodded. “Yes, they are on the way back to HQ. Moblit was here, too. Apparently, the bodies were lying here two or three days before the kids who go here to smoke came here. They noticed the disgusting smell and here we are now. We only waited for you to see it before we move the bodies.”

Erwin nodded and looked at the room again. There was so much blood on the floor and on the walls and-

The frown on his face deepened. Without telling Mike what he was doing, he entered the crime scene and walked towards the old banister of the balcony. It was very close to the boy’s body and there were blood stains on it. That wouldn’t be very strange but their shapes and angle were what caught Erwin’s attention. He moved closer to the trajectory in which the female victim most likely fell and looked at her bloodstains too. With her, it was much more easy to see the difference.

Usually, bite wound left much more dull and rounded bloodstains, or even only drops but this ones had too sharp angle and were too long. It had to be a cut, not a bite.

“Did you notice the shapes of it?” Erwin pointed at the wall in front of him. “The bloodstains can’t be from bites.”

Mike raised eyebrows, walked towards Erwin and examined it himself. After few minutes, he admitted: “No, but I noticed something else.”

He led him back to the door and showed him blood drops leading from the bodies out of the door and then to the dressing rooms and emergency exit. And it wasn’t only blood that led there. Erwin and Mike were both very careful not to step on bloody footprints that marked the way out of the theatre. They belonged to two persons without any doubt. The first person had huge feet and went a lot slower while the other one ran out of there as quickly as possible and had much smaller feet.

When they got back to the balcony, Erwin looked at the smaller ones more closely.

“They look familiar, don’t they?” Mike asked, already sounding as if he knew something Erwin didn’t.

Erwin turned his head to see his face. There was a smug sparkle in his eye, as if he was proud of Erwin noticing it, too, and then he opened the file he was holding until now and handed him few photos. Finally, Erwin realized from where he recognized these footprints. It was the same sneakers Levi had wore before they seized all his clothes as his evidence. Even the size matched.

“Hange was overjoyed when they noticed this,” Mike said almost bitterly. “Moblit had to hold them back because otherwise they would probably completely destroy the evidence with the ‘Success dance’.”

Erwin couldn’t help but smile. Hange’s Success dance was pretty famous and usually went along with singing. Needless to say, Hange’s singing was absolutely terrible and those people who were gifted with ear for music, like Mike, always had to plug up their ears before someone managed to calm Hange.

“So, I suppose we’ll find also the Ripper’s blood here and maybe this has absolutely nothing to do with Titans.” Erwin’s smile widened at the thought.

“Erwin, don’t be creepy.” Mike said uncomfortably with a concern look on his face. “These people still had parts of their bodies bitten off. That sounds like the Titans to me.”

“Maybe the Ripper just tried to imitate them,” Erwin speculated, once again deep in thoughts. “Maybe this wasn’t planned and he didn’t want us to know it was him.”

Mike’s eyebrows almost touched when he frowned, thinking about this possibility. “Maybe. We’ll see after the DNA results.”

After this, they didn’t stay for long. Erwin examined the crime scene again but didn’t find anything what Mike wouldn’t already know.

As they were on their way outside, Erwin asked: “How is Levi?”

“I don’t know,” Mike sighed tiredly and massaged the back of his neck until it gave a low crack. “He’s sleeping probably. I would’ve… I went straight to the crime scene from my bed.”

Erwin grunted understandingly but said nothing. He had to make his way through the crowd that was still standing behind the police tape but fortunately, there wasn’t that many of them anymore.

They both said their goodbyes and walked towards their cars.

After Erwin got home, he didn’t gave any thoughts to sleeping however tired he felt after his day. Instead he exercised how he’d planned, hoping it would help him to get sleep, but his mind still seemed to be at the crime scene, with the room with Levi, or browsing through the old evidence they had on the Ripper.

In the end, he ended up looking at the ceiling of his room far into the night for few hours until he finally slipped into the darkness of his sleep.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Then Levi turned his head and glanced at Erwin over his shoulder. He had small and narrow eyes but Erwin swore that, in that moment, he could describe every single detail about them even with the distance between the two men. The silverish color, the sharp edges, the long lashes, everything. And that was the moment he felt a wave of excitement and desire running through him as if he had lava and not blood in his veins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need to apologize for not posting this sooner but first I was on a vocation with no access to WiFi and then I had some troubles with my computer so. I’m also sorry if this chapter’s too long but at first I was glad that I managed to get more than 5k words (because I stubbornly decided that all of the chapters from now will have more than 5k words) and then I kinda couldn’t stop writing.. so I’m sorry about it. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy and please, leave a comment :3

Erwin felt a very strong urge to cancel the only appointment he had the next day but he was a professional and could get through the meeting with a war veteran without thinking the whole session about Levi. Or… mostly, he could.

After their 55 minutes that seemed to be unbelievably long, Erwin left his office, got into the car and drove to the CID headquarters as quickly as possible and probably broke at least one of the laws by driving above the speed limit.

Fortunately, he didn’t get caught, and soon he was walking towards the CID building. He didn’t even stop to greet the security guards; he just showed them his authorized tag and wove his way through the corridors to the elevator and finally headed to the interrogation rooms.

Now, that it was daylight outside the rooms were used by other agents who were trying to get their witnesses or suspects to talk. Erwin greeted the few of them he knew personally before he found Mike and Hange sitting on the benches.

Erwin felt so much anticipation he could hardly breathe but showed none of it on his face. Or at least he thought. Given to both, Hange and Mike, had very smug expressions on their face, they could read him like an open book right now. 

“Did he talk?” he asked in calm, steady voice when he was sure they could hear him.

Hange’s smile widened before they said in falsely offended tone: “Well, good morning to you, too! We’re great, Erwin, thanks for asking and how are you?”

Erwin rolled his eyes and put his briefcase on the floor. He was feeling a bit anxious and excited at the same time about talking to Levi and his hands were unusually sweaty. This didn’t happen to him often but Levi and his connection to the case were both just… unique.

He sighed eventually and said: “Sorry, but I’m just too-”

“Excited!” Hange yelled knowingly and few of the rookies, who were all new to the CID and didn’t know this was a normal state for them, looked a bit frightened. Just like everyone who knew Hange for a short time (and few who knew them for a long time who weren’t able to stop being scared of them).

Erwin smiled slightly, his lips curling up. “Yes,” he confirmed.

“Well, he’s waiting for you in the same room as yesterday,” Hange said and then, with even more enthusiasm in their voice, they added: “But Erwin there is something we have to tell you! I ran the DNA tests yesterday.. you know the ones related to the double murder victims. You and Mike were right - the blood on Levi’s shirt matches these victims and we found his DNA on the bitten wounds on the bodies and the bloodstains leading to door were Ripper’s. You know what that means?”

It was strange and even though everything pointed to it, Erwin didn’t want to believe Levi had killed someone. He didn’t really struck him as a killer but he had to admit it was usual for killers to appear as normal, friendly individuals, especially if they were intelligent. Not that Levi was normal or friendly but the murders just… didn’t fit him.

His train of thoughts was interrupted by Hange’s energetic yell: “Get him to talk no matter what!”

When Erwin looked them in the eye, he recognized something wild, animalistic and crazy. He knew in the instance that they were only half-joking and truly wanted him to use any way to get something useful out of the man who had currently been waiting in the interrogation room.

“I will,” he answered in serious tone, letting them know it was as important to him as it was to them, and laid his suitcase aside at the bench, opened it and pulled out a file he had on Levi with few pictures of the crime scene from yesterday and from the autopsy in case he needed them and some more.

Hange smiled as if they knew one of the world’s biggest secrets and nodded.

Erwin gave Mike a confident look and then headed towards the door. He slowly opened it and entered.

Levi was in almost the same position as yesterday. The only difference was that they had handcuffed him to the desk by his wrists and his shoulders were much more tense. When he looked at Erwin and the sky-blue met the silver-steel eyes, Levi had an excellent poker-face but his features were a bit too hard to be normal and relaxed and there was a tiny frown between his eyebrows. Erwin knew anger when he saw it and Levi, no matter how well he could hide it, was furious.

Erwin thought whether it had been because of his panic attack yesterday and thus he was furious with himself and Erwin for causing it or perhaps because he was still there; after all, he desperately wanted to go ‘home’ yesterday, whatever that meant. Erwin had the feeling it was a bit of both.

“Hello, Levi,” he smiled politely and sat down across from the younger man again.

It wasn’t a surprise when Levi didn’t answer and his eyes turned even colder. This was going to be rather difficult.

Erwin waited for few seconds before he pushed the chair under himself closer to the table; then he put his hands on the table, leaving his palms open in trustworthy gesture and focused on having his face clear and seemingly exposed to Levi. The man sitting opposite him wouldn’t probably realize it but his subconscious knew friendly body language.

“I’m sorry about yesterday,” Erwin’s voice was sincere and he put on a caring and considerate hint to it but not too much - Levi didn’t seem like the type that wanted pity or something similar to it. “I asked you the wrong question and made you uncomfortable. I apologize for that.”

Levi’s expression didn’t change so Erwin decided to change his tactic a bit.

“You wanted to leave yesterday, right?” the blond asked in careful tone. “Did you have any appointment or something like that?”

Levi’s jaws moved in irritation and his eyes stabbed deeper into Erwin’s.

The psychologist decided to dig deeper and used even more considerate voice, knowing it would probably only irritated Levi but eventually it would get him to talk: “Levi, I just want to talk with you. I want to help you.”

“No, you don’t give a shit about talking with me. You wanna talk about him,” Levi spat the words at him as if Erwin had been one of the most disgusting persons in the world. “Which I won’t because he didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Him?” Erwin widened his eyes in false surprise. “Who is ‘he’?”

Suspicion and hesitation flashed on Levi’s face before the younger man became angry again: “Fuck you! You know about who I’m talking about.”

Erwin frowned in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Levi decided let the subject go and instead continued to shoot daggers at Erwin with his eyes. After few minutes, just when Erwin thought he wasn’t going to say anything more, he said: “Am I being charged with anything? Or I can go?”

Erwin felt sudden wave of frustration at the way Levi tried to change the subject. But he was a man of control and decided to let it go and instead leaned closer to Levi and looked him deeply in the eyes. “I’m afraid you cannot. You’re being charged with a theft of the car and, after we give the evidence to the court, it’s possible you’ll become a suspect of a double murder. If you don’t cooperate with me, it’s possible you’ll have to go to prison.”

Levi didn’t look surprised. Instead his expression revealed insecurity and a bit of anxiousness. Something was telling Erwin it had nothing to do with the fact that he would go to jail; at least not directly.

“I can’t.” Levi said quietly but with a hint of anger in his voice.

“Why can’t you, Levi?” Erwin asked, carefully making his tone soft so the expectation which was burning inside of him couldn’t be heard.

Erwin was glad in that moment that he was so good at reading people. The young man sitting opposite him had the slightest changes of expressions Erwin had ever seen and with the right training, he really could become a professional player of poker.

Levi looked hesitant and angry at the same time and the feelings mixed into a strange grimase, his lips curled down slightly and the frown between his eyebrows deepened. “I need to go home.”

Erwin knew he had to chose his next question very carefully after how their conversation went yesterday. “Why is it so important to go home, Levi?”

Levi’s neck stiffed and the hesitation was replaced with fury once again. “Fuck you.”

Erwin sighed and looked down in false submission, giving the other man the feeling was the more powerful person in their conversation, before he looked up and met Levi’s eyes again. “Levi, I just want to help you. Please, talk to me.”

“You don’t want to help me,” Levi’s voice was cold and unapproachable. “You don’t give a shit about me. You want to solve your damn case.”

“That’s true,” Erwin agreed, deciding it would not be wise to lie at this one. “But I also want to help you in the process.”

Levi snorted loudly but didn’t say anything.

“Levi, why is it so important to go home?” Erwin asked again kindly.

The raven-haired man looked at the desk between them and ignored the blond.

Erwin tried to speak with him for several more minutes before he gave up, raised from his chair and left the room, saying Levi a goodbye in kind voice. Neither Mike, neither Hange were waiting for him outside the room but he knew where to find them.

As he walked to the room, he felt frustrated and furious with both Levi and himself for the raven’s silence. He was too eager to get him to talk and too forceful. Levi needed time to open himself up to him and Erwin worked too fast.

He needed a new strategy.

Just as he expected, Mike, Hange, and now also Nanaba, were waiting for him in the room where they could see all of what had been happening in the interrogation rooms on the screens of computers.

“Hi.” Erwin said to the blonde woman.

She only nodded and turned back to the screen where they could see Levi. “He’s a tough nut to crack, huh?”

“The toughest,” Erwin admitted, tired and ignoring the other people who were too looking at the screens of their own interrogations, and then he sank into the chair next to Mike’s. He could see Levi from there, calmly and without a single movement of his body except for the breathing and blinking. Too calm, a voice in Erwin’s head said. Almost no one without studying body language or understanding human psychology would be able to sit so motionlessly in this situation.

Erwin narrowed his eyes at the young man, his mind spinning and calculating. “Why didn’t he bit the Ripper?” he asked curiously.

Mike, Hange and Nanaba gave him a very confused look and in Nana’s case a bit disgusted.

“I mean,” Erwin had to put his thoughts in some order otherwise he wouldn’t be able to express them so he decided to open his file and look at the pictures from yesterday to buy himself some time before he started talking again. “Yesterday, at the crime scene, we found two dead bodies. Let’s start with the fact that both people were bitten and presumably bled out eventually from the wounds. But the stain on the Levi’s t-shirt looks more like he was wiping his bloody hands and his face than it looks like blood dripping from his chin and this stain!” Erwin almost shouted at his friends and few of the older agents in room dared to give him disapproving looks. “It looks like a shape of a knife! Why would he bother with stabbing the Ripper if he had no problem with tearing the throats of the other two? And I think we all can agree that he is not a Titan. We don’t have a single case where only one of them would attack…” Erwin checked himself when he looked at another picture and another. He was perfectly aware that he was being creepy - Mike often said to him that when he got into a this kind of state when nothing but the case was on his mind he was even worse than Hange and that was something.

After his sudden stop, everybody seemed to be still processing his words and Erwin didn’t mind. He was thinking about another way to approach the young man who was probably forced to kill the victims.

“Erwin,” Mike raised up from his chair and put a hand on the shorter blond’s shoulder and Erwin saw sympathy and regret in his face. “Go home and get some rest.”

It was all over his face; he regretted his decision to tell Erwin about the new information on the Ripper’s case because when he looked Erwin in the eye, and he had the same insane spark he’d used to when Erwin had been more actively working on the case.

Erwin fought the urge to tell him something nasty but he managed to hold it in and just nodded but he caught himself already considering when he could see Levi again.

He knew Mike wished the best for him but that didn't mean he was happy about it.

When Mike handed him his suitcase, he took it and said: “Alright. I'll try to take it easy.”

Mike looked a bit unconvinced, he knew Erwin better than to fall for that lie but he nodded anyway; once Erwin had set himself a goal, he would do literally anything to achieve it.

The other blond gave him a sad smile and turned to leave without properly saying a goodbye.

“Hey, Erwin!” Hange’s hand stopped him in his track and he looked up only to see a terribly wide smile. “Why don't we meet today at your place and have a little party. We haven't done that in such a long time, it will be fun, right?” They turned to Mike and Nanaba, hoping they would support their words. “I’ll bring wine and some homemade food and-”

“Oh, please, Hange, don't cook or bake!” Nana begged, her perfect teeth showing in a huge smile which she didn't revealed often.

“Why? I'm a great cook!” Hange argued, sounding very offended by Nanaba’s words.

“Yes,” Mike snorted mockingly and continued in sarcastic tone: “You proved that the last time... Wait, no. Last time, you set Moblit’s kitchen on fire which triggered the fire alarm off and in few minutes, everybody in the apartment building had to be evacuated.”

Hange narrowed their eyes at Mike and gently hit him in the shoulder. “It wasn’t my fault and it was just once! And you guys didn’t let me cook anything ever since! How can you know I didn’t improve my skills?”

Everybody laughed, even the people sitting aside were giggling, still looking at their screens, and despite himself, even Erwin felt his lips curling up in a smile but his mood didn’t improve very much. “Alright,” he said eventually, thinking some company would do him only good. “Text me before you arrive at my place.”

“Sure thing,” Hange winked at him.

After that, Erwin just waved, left the room and slowly walked towards the elevator. Just few steps in front of him, two guards were walking with Levi between them. They were heading to a special elevator which led to the cells. He was handcuffed and there was a chain that connected his ankles. Now, that Erwin finally could look at him standing, he noticed just how big the difference between their sizes was. He truly looked more like a teenager than a grown up person and the white pants they’d given to him were so big that he was dragging the pant legs on the ground and the sleeves of his shirt were long enough to cover not only his arms and wrists but also half of his hands.

He looked very fragile but Erwin had the feeling that would be a terrible underestimating of him. There was a dangerous aura around him.

Then Levi turned his head and glanced at Erwin over his shoulder. He had small and narrow eyes but Erwin swore that, in that moment, he could describe every single detail about them even with the distance between the two men. The silverish color, the sharp edges, the long lashes, everything. And that was the moment he felt a wave of excitement and desire running through him as if he had lava and not blood in his veins.

His only luck was that Levi looked away and didn't seem to notice all the fire and hunger that Erwin’s face was showing before he collected himself and hid all of his emotions behind the mask of indifference. After Levi finally disappeared in the elevator, Erwin could breathe again.

Shit. This wasn’t something he had planned and he panicked for a minute. It was bad to want someone like Levi on both moral and professional basics.

Erwin quickened his pace, slid into his elevator and pushed the button. It started moving and the blond slowly overcame the panic that came with that yearning feeling. Now, that he could deal with it using logic, he thought that perhaps it just had been too long since he had been with anyone and Levi just seemed like someone who was his type - there was definitely size difference, black hair and the almost ghostly pale skin.

And a voice in the back of Erwin’s mind which sounded dangerously like Hange reminded Erwin that Levi definitely seemed to be bent or broken (that was something the blond hope wasn’t the case) and Erwin just loved to be near those kind of people. It was one of the reasons he became a psychologist - he loved to see what made those people be the way they were and to see just how far can the state of human mind go. Of course, he also wanted the best for them and tried to help them but he’d became aware a long time ago that some people were beyond repairing.

Now, that he was thinking about it, he also realized he really hoped he could still help Levi to heal. He wanted it more than with any of his patients before… of course, excluding his ex-wife. Which was another proof that getting involved or acting on the desire wouldn’t be a very good idea, not to mention the fact that he would be dating a patient and that was something definitely unethical. And some people still didn’t forget that he asked his ex out only a week after she stopped going to his therapy.

Erwin got off the elevator when the door opened with a ding and he slowly made his way out of the building.

The way home didn’t take long and, even though he was hungry, he didn’t bother eating before sitting down on the couch in the living room with his arms full with copied materials that were somehow related to Levi’s case. He had a special permission to take the papers or files with him, into his house, under a condition that he would always lock the documents and pictures up in a safe he had behind his library and, after the case was solved, he would return all materials to CID or to the police station.

He spent a hour trying to figure out something more and looking at every detail of the crime scene but didn’t find anything what they didn’t know. After that, he decided to look at the report that was written when Levi’s mother, Kuchel, reported him as missing. There were also two pictures she gave the police so they could identify her child.

The first one was where he had been wearing a very cheap child suit in a school photography. He had been small even for a child and he’d still looked very proud and stoic but there was something different about his old self in the pictures. His features had lacked the sharpness they had these days and his eyes hadn’t been like two knives twisting into Erwin’s gut. The blond supposed it was partly because growing up God-knows-where.

The other one was a picture much more personal and Erwin finally found out after whom Levi had gotten his good looks. Kuchel Ackerman was on the photo, with her son, casually hugging him around shoulders and her were lips curled up in a huge smile. They had been sitting on an old and a bit dirty couch with window behind them and gentle touches of the sun had been warming their backs and they both had looked so happy.

The happy surroundings of Levi’s early childhood took Erwin by surprise. Of course, logically, he knew that Levi couldn’t have only two expressions, the angry and the empty one, for all his life but still… it was such a difference seeing him in the age of around thirteen when he was just another kid with his mom, smiling down and his features soft with happiness.

After few minutes when he was just staring at Levi in the picture, he looked again at Kuchel. They truly looked very much alike. The same hair,their face had also the same features, the same body type - even though she’d looked much more healthier than her son now - and the only one significant difference between them were her eyes which had hazel color while Levi’s were grey.

It took Erwin almost an hour to go through all the records that were there on the Levi’s disappearance and he made sure he remembered every detail there was about him.

Apparently, his mother used to go to the police station on daily and then weekly basics to ask if they knew something new about her son and she on more than one opportunity accused the police officers of neglecting their job. Erwin couldn’t blame her. Losing a child was for a parent one of the most traumatic experiences and police did nothing to help her.

He even felt a bit sorry for her. After all, she died not long before they found her son.

Erwin sighed and placed all the documents back into the file and put them into his safe. After that, he made himself a small lunch, just to keep himself busy, and then he decided to read one of the books Hange recommended to him few days ago before all the new Ripper stuff started.

Just when he took A Memento for Istanbul into his hands, his phone rang.

He couldn’t help himself but quickly pull it out of his pocket. He felt adrenalin and excitement rushing through his veins as he found himself hoping it would be Mike or Hange calling him back to the HQ or maybe even Nile wanting to let him something new they’d found about the two dead bodies in abandoned theater.

When his look fell on the screen of his phone and read the name, he was very disappointed and sighed before placing the phone to his ear and sinking into one of the armchairs in the living room. “Hey, mom.”

What followed was a not unusual, about 30 minutes long conversation, with his mother. She was the one who talked most of the time and tried to make him feel guilty about not calling her as he’d promised he would (“You always say you’ll call me and then I have to see you in the news and I have no idea, what’s going on! Do you want to have a heart attack because of you?!”). He sighed again, more quietly this time because he knew that if she’d heard she would scold him even more, and then tried to calm her down before he had repeated her for at least a hundredth time he couldn’t speak with her about the crimes he had been solving. After she finally stopped rebuking him, she made him promise that he would be careful and wouldn’t let anything happen to him.

Every time he made her this worried, Erwin indeed felt guiltily just like his mother wanted him to. She was a mother hen, yes, but he knew what made her to be the way she was - his mother had lost her husband years ago and didn’t have any other living family member. Plus that one time when Erwin got shot hadn’t helped to calm her worries either.

During the conversation, when he managed to actually talk, Erwin was convincing his mom that she didn’t need to pay a visit to him.

“Are you sure, darling? I could always find some time for my wonderful son,” she said with voice full of worry. “You shouldn’t live in that huge house alone. Did you manage to find yourself some pretty girl?”

“Mom.” Erwin answered half tiredly, half warningly. He wasn’t feeling like talking about it. Unfortunately, his mother had none of it.

“Well?”

“No.” Erwin let himself sink deeper into the armchair with resignation.

What followed was a moment of silence, before his mother asked: “What about a handsome guy?”

Erwin facepalmed before shouting angrily: “Mom!”

“What, nothing?” she completely ignored Erwin’s indignation and sounded very disappointed but Erwin heard a hint of amusement in her tone.

“I’m glad that my irritation entertains you.” the blond informed her offendedly. “You know very well that if I met someone, I’d let you know immediate-”

“Bullshit!” his mother didn’t even let him finish the sentence before she snorted irritatedly. “You never tell me anything about these kind of things. You let me know about that woman literally months after you started dating, when you wanted to ask her to marry you, so don’t try to say this kind of bullshit to me, young man.” She said the word ‘that’ as if it was an insult… which it probably was. It also meant Erwin probably managed to get her very mad because she hardly said anything bad about Marie - Erwin’s mother respected his decision to marry her and not even once told him the famous ‘I told you so’ sentence.

Erwin suddenly felt very small in the armchair and felt like a teenager who had been caught smoking (which was definitely Mike’s fault).

“Mom, I'm sorry, but I have to go.” he said way too quickly and as soon as the words left his mouth, he knew that she was going to know that he had plenty of time to talk to her but didn’t want anymore. After all, his mom was the only person that could always read him like an open book.

“Erwin…” his mother started as if she was going to argue with him but eventually decided against it and, with a sigh, she just told him: “Just be careful with that case, alright? And if you need something, let me know.”

“Sure. Goodbye.” Erwin nodded and before his mother could say something else, he hang up.

The silence he found himself in was deafening. For few minutes, he stared at the wall where were pictures of him and his friends. Hange, Nana, Mike, Moblit and at few of them even Nile and Marie. There used to be few more pictures of him and Marie, most of them from their wedding day, but he had (with Hange’s help) thrown them away few months after the divorce.

When he couldn’t withstand the silence, he turned on the TV, not really caring what was playing, and chose to read the book he originally intended to.

Erwin didn’t know how he managed to be looking into the book and sometimes even pay attention to the words that were printed on the book pages for such a long time but he did it. His mind often wandered to Levi and the Ripper though.

He was sure Levi hadn’t been the one who killed the boy and the girl but that was up to the pathologist to find out. He just hoped Moblit would be done with it quickly.

When Erwin let his mind to wander too much, he thought about Levi, how he looked when he turned his head around to glance at Erwin, with his narrow and a bit intimidating eyes, and how he just wanted to lick the pale skin of his exposed neck.

The images his unsettled mind was so kindly shoving him vanished the moment he heard the doorbell ringing. He quickly put his book aside and looked at the clock on the wall right above his TV. It was already 6 pm and Erwin realized he lost track of time and completely forgot about the visit his friends were supposed to pay him. When he looked at his phone while walking towards doors, he realized that he actually even received the texts from them.

Things like this didn’t happen to him often because Erwin was generally a conscientious person but the information on the case were just too fresh for his mind to focus on anything else.

Quickly, he stood up and went to the main door only to be greeted by Hange’s huge smile as they shoved a bottle of cheap wine into his hands.

“Are you still wearing the suit from the noon?” Mike asked Erwin judgmentally with a deep frown between his eyebrows. Due to his very sensitive nose, he often changed his clothes and every time somebody showed two days in a row in the same suit or dress at work, he gave them very, very disapproving look. Erwin felt strange, being under that kind of look after so many times it had been pointed at Hange.

“Sorry, I got a call from mom and after that-”

“Oh, your mom is such a nice woman! Is she coming here anytime soon?” Hange yelled exhaustively and, without asking permission, walked past Erwin into the house.

Erwin hadn’t though Mike’s frown could get any deeper but it got. “I hope not. Your mother is dangerous,” the taller blond murmured.

Of course he’d say so… after all, Erwin’s mother had always thought he had a bad influence on Erwin and generally tended to blame everything bad her son had done on his, more or less innocent, friends.

“Hey, Erwin, where is the food?!” Hange shouted a bit hysterically from Erwin’s kitchen and looking around and then into the fridge. “I wrote you that you should have something prepared! I’m hungry!”

“I forgot,” Erwin said in an apologetic voice. “We can order pizza or Chinese if you want.” he finally stepped aside so everybody could get in. Moblit rushed past him as well to make sure Hange didn’t do anything catastrophic in the kitchen and Nanaba gave Erwin a gentle smile before heading to help him.

Erwin let Mike in and closed the door.

In the end, they ended up ordering food and then moved to Erwin’s living room.

The evening was very enjoyable and Erwin didn’t even found his mind wandering to Levi or the case that much. They watched sappy TV shows (for which Mike’s reaction had been groaning that they were getting old) and Hange, as usually, made comments on the story every ten seconds and literally tearing its logic apart. After two episodes they started throwing popcorn on the screen and booing before the always-ready Moblit confiscated the popcorn to himself. It didn’t help very much because after few more minutes Hange threw the empty boxes from their food at Erwin’s poor TV that wasn’t to blame for anything. Then, a mutual decision had been made and Nana changed the channels.

Erwin kind of felt like he was back at a university again with Mike. It had been crazy days but even he had to admit that Hange was far more crazier than anything they had ever experienced on the university.

* * *

 The next morning, Erwin had another few sessions with his patients. One was a woman who had been shot and ever since was terrified of being at any public spaces with too many people. Erwin used to go to her home for their sessions but her condition improved enough for her to come to Erwin’s office… well, at least most of the time; sometimes she still called to ask him to go at her place. The other ones were another war veteran and a girl who fought anorexia.

All of his sessions took longer than usually; especially the girl needed a lot of his attention since this was only their second session.

After he was finished at his office, he went to a shop and checked his phone which he had always turned off before the sessions. He had no new text messages or calls which was disappointing but he wasn’t going to call Mike first because he knew it would only prove that his concerns about Erwin’s obsession with the Levi’s case had become unhealthy again.

Just as he was at the cash desk, his phone started ringing. People were turning to Erwin but the blond only smiled apologetically, paid for his shopping and carefully lifted his bags with one hand before picking up without checking the caller.

“Erwin Smith.” he said as he was walking out of the store to his car on the parking lot.

“I know who I’m calling, thanks,” Hange’s said in very enthusiastic tone but it also sounded as if they were whispering. “Guess what, my dear Mr. Handsome, Moblit just found out.”

“I have no idea but I’m sure you are going to tell me.” Erwin said almost unable to the keep excitement out of his voice.

“Of course I am because I’m one of the best friends you are ever going to have,” Erwin could literally see the smirk on Hange’s face as they let out those smug words. “But don’t tell Mike on me, yeah? He wants to give you some time before inviting you to speak with Levi again. So, anyway, Moblit was doing the autopsy and, wait for it, he found out that the bite marks were done after the death. It had been pretty soon after their heart stopped but it is still clear as is the day, especially on the man’s body.”

Erwin felt a wave of satisfaction washing over him for being right about it. “I see. What is the mortal wound, then?”

“Well, they bled out buuut…” Hange stretched the word to give their conversation more tension… not that it needed it very much. “... Moblit found that the man had his kneecap dislocated shortly before death and the woman got a really hard blow to her head. They bled out from their necks, their carotid arteries and the jugular vein were slit before Levi tore their throat with his teeth. To be honest, it seems like whoever did this have some experience with slicing other people’s necks.”

Erwin felt a little bit sick at this information but he was also relieved that this increased the chances that Levi was not responsible for their deaths.

“That’s pretty good news for Levi, isn’t it?” Erwin said happily.

“Yeah,” it sounded like they wanted to say something more, but there was a sound of door being closed and they said instead. “I gotta go, see you later.”

Erwin didn’t have time to answer before Hange ended call. It was more than clear that his friend locked themselves on the restroom and somebody came. It wasn’t that uncommon for them to let Erwin know certain things this way.

The blond smiled and finally started the car.

* * *

 

Mike or anybody for that matter didn’t call him or text him for the next few days and the only distraction he got was an email from Pixis, the director of CID, requesting him to do a profile of a killer who had recently appeared in the neighboring city.

At least something would occupy Erwin’s mind while he was waiting for Mike to let him interrogate Levi again.

The days were long and uneventful and when Erwin’s phone vibrated in his pocket as he was going back home from the sessions, he felt very relieved. And when he found out it indeed was Mike, he had to stop for a moment to calm down, so when he answered the call, he would appear serene.

“Hello.” the blond said into his phone eventually.

“Hi, Erwin,” Mike greeted him with his typical, calm voice. “I’ve got some news on the Ripper’s case. Do you wanna hear them?”

Erwin took a deep breath and stand up from his couch, heading upstairs to change from his old jacket and jeans into a suit. “Sure thing.”

Mike started talking, carefully, as if he still wasn’t sure he should be telling this to him, but he didn’t say Erwin, anything he wouldn’t know already from Hange from their conversation from almost a week ago but the shorter blond managed to sound surprised and Mike seemed to fall for that. Then, Mike got to the news.

“Another thing… I got a call from Nile today.” Mike stated calmly as if he was talking about weather. “He said he managed to find identities of the two victims. The girl’s name was Isabel Magnolia, twenty-two years old, the guy was Farlan Church, twenty-four years old. They both used to live in the same children’s home in Maria. They ran away years ago shortly before Church turned seventeen. The police had few records about them, mostly footages from stores where they and another male stole food, or, at gas stations, money.”

“Third guy?” this surprised Erwin. “Do we know who he is?”

“We’re not sure,” Mike grumbled but from his voice Erwin could hear that the taller man already had a theory, and he was right. “But when I and Nana looked at the footages ourselves, we could see that the male was definitely someone with black hair and was someone very, very short.”

“Oh.” escaped Erwin’s mouth as the image of Levi came up to his mind immediately.

“Yeah… oh.” Mike agreed. “He doesn’t seem so innocent now, does he?” without waiting for an answer, Mike continued. “Well, anyway, I and Nana tried to get him to talk with us, without success, of course. So, I was thinking that maybe you could drop by and try to talk to him again.”

A smile spread across Erwin’s lips when Mike finished the last sentence but he still managed to keep his voice calm and collected when he answered. “Yeah, sure. When should I come?”

“Do you have time right now?” Mike asked. “The HQ is almost empty at this time so nobody is going to distract you.”

“Alright,” Erwin opened his closet. “I’ll be there soon.”

“Okay, see you,” Mike ended the call and Erwin dropped his phone on his bed before quickly getting into one of his black suits and tying a green tie on his neck. When he was on his way out of the house, he put few photos, he had prepared for this occasion, into his suitcase, and left the house.

The way to the HQ was short and quick and soon enough, Erwin found himself walking through the familiar - and empty just like Mike had said they would - corridors to the waiting area.

Mike was waiting for him there. As Erwin was coming to them, Mike stood up from the bench and, without any word, he just nodded and led him to one of the rooms that were informally called ‘The Plot Room’ which served primarily for the interrogators to think about the best way to question and approch their suspects or witnesses who refused to say what they saw, to ‘plot’ against them.

“Heey, Erwin!” Hange waved at him as soon as he entered the room. It was a quiet, dark place without any windows, but larger than the interrogate rooms and there had been six chairs around a huge, round, black table in the middle of it. Nanaba was also here but Moblit was absent.

“Hi.” Erwin greeted them with a slight smile on his lips.

“Hey,” Nanaba returned the smile and stepped aside. Erwin walked to the spot where she had been standing seconds ago and looked at the desk. The original color of the desk was almost invisible under so many papers, pictures and documents. When Erwin got closer look at it, he recognized that it was mostly pictures of crime scene where they found Isabel and Farlan, then there were the ones Kuchel had given to the police of her son, pictures from several robberies of gas stations and stores Mike told Erwin about. The documents were records of his own conversations with Levi and several of a cop’s and Levi’s mother’s.

Erwin lifted the first one, that one where Kuchel reported her son missing. He could say that the police man hadn’t taken her very seriously the moment he saw his choice of words, especially in the first conversation: ‘So, you say’, ‘Maybe he just forgot to come home’ and ‘Supposedly’.

But then his look fell upon a picture from a video footage. It was unclear but, since he knew what to look for, he immediately recognized Isabel Magnolia, trying to get as many food as she could into her bag, Farlan Church getting the money from the cash box behind a counter and, finally, a short person that looked a lot like Levi Ackerman with a gun in his hands and pointing it at the terrified clerk.

“Levi is waiting for you in one of the rooms again but I thought maybe you’d want to look at these before you go there.” Nana explained pointing at the desk with pieces of evidence on it.

“I appreciate it.” Erwin smiled once more and pretended he didn’t had the next conversation with Levi already thought-out in his mind, imagining almost every possibility he could and whatever direction their conversation could go. But he had to admit that Levi had been like a wild card to him until now, so there was a huge possibility he still wouldn’t play the way Erwin wanted him to.

Erwin pretended that he was looking at the pictures before he turned to Mike and asked: “Do you have any pictures where is only Levi’s mother? Alone or at least without him?”

Mike frowned but answered: “I don’t think we have some where she’d be completely alone but we have these… We were lucky that the cops who were investigating Kuchel Ackerman’s death didn’t throw them away. It looks like they didn’t take the case of a murdered hooker very seriously… Who would be missing her, right?” Mike’s voice had a bitter hint in it; something with which Erwin could easily sympathize.

The taller blond showed Erwin a picture in a transparent, plastic sachet. Kuchel were on it with her female friends at some kind of nightclub. The sparkle in her eyes which she had on photo with her son was missing, her smile wasn’t as wide and she lost a lot of weight during all those years.

He felt a wave of sympathy for her which he pushed to the back of his mind, then he took the photo with him and looked back at Mike. “Thank you. Do we know these woman?”

“Yeah,” this time it was Nanaba who answered. “Nile helped us to find them and I talked to them. The woman on the right is the one who found her. She had a spare key to Ackerman’s flat and she dropped by after few nights when Kuchel didn’t go to work. Both of them say that she became absolutely possessed by trying to find her son and, about a month before her murder, she mentioned to them that she was close to him again but she had been drunk at that time so they didn’t take her very seriously.”

Erwin frowned but nodded in acknowledgement. “Thanks. Which room is he in?”

Mike walked him there, and just when Erwin put his hand on the door handle, he touched the shorter man’s shoulder and said in a quiet voice: “We have cameras in the room he sleeps in or, to be more accurate, doesn’t sleep in and when he does it’s the usual restless, PTSD kind of sleep. And he refuses to eat anything.”

Erwin looked Mike in the eye for a moment before the taller man shoved a bottle of water in his hands and sack of salted sticks. Erwin took it into his hands and nodded slowly. “Okay.” then, he entered the room.

Levi looked even worser than before. He was like a ghost with his extremely pale skin, the joints of his fingers visible under the skin and dark circles under his eyes. He didn’t look good at all.

“Hi, Levi.” Erwin greeted the younger man and slowly walked towards the desk. It wasn’t a big surprise to him when Levi did not answer.

The blond sat down into his chair and put his suitcase on the floor next to the desk and the sack and water on it. “How are you doing, Levi?”

Once again, his words were met with Levi’s silence. “I was told that you don’t eat as much as you should.”

This time, Levi managed to keep his anger under control and didn’t frown but Erwin could still see that everything he did made Levi angry.

“I hope that you at least keep yourself dehydrated,” the blond continued and pointed at the bottle. “If you want, take a drink.”

Levi looked at the lid of the bottle as if searching for something before looking back at Erwin again. The blond was suddenly curious… for a second, it looked like the raven was checking whether the bottle was still sealed or not.

“Levi, may I ask you few questions?” Erwin asked, trying to sound friendly but not too much friendly - Levi was still suspicious and Erwin couldn’t blame him. It was pretty common for people with his condition.

Levi didn’t answer him, only continued to stare at him with those silverish eyes and his expression was so hard that if Erwin had a knife, he could use that face as a sharpening stone.

The blond slowly not to startle the younger man reached for his suitcase and pulled out the photo of Kuchel and her friends at a club. Erwin made sure he was watching Levi’s face the whole time so he wouldn’t miss any of his possible reactions when pushed it in the raven’s direction on the desk.

“Do you know the woman in the middle?” Erwin asked and pointed at Kuchel.

Levi’s reactions were so quick that if it was anybody but Erwin was looking at his face, they would had missed it. His eyes widened a bit and his chest raised as he inhaled a sharp breath and his lips parted. Then his eyes, only for a moment, lowered with the weight of sorrow in them and then it was all over and Levi looked back at Erwin.

The blond didn’t let any of the tension to crawl onto his face or into his posture and instead kept it nice and friendly.

Erwin’s ardour reduced a little when Levi didn’t fill the silence. But the blond saw that Levi’s strong, unmoved attitude, had been cracked by his mother’s picture, and he wasn’t going to let Levi collect himself after the shock. He had to make a move now. He had to use the crack in the other man’s armor and let whatever was going on in Levi’s head out.

“It’s your mom, Levi.” he said in gently voice.

Levi swallowed and looked at the picture again. It took him a whole minute before he finally said something.

“She can’t be.” And his voice was raspy from the days of not using it.

“You don’t recognize her?” Erwin asked. He thought that perhaps Levi’s memories of her might be suppressed into the back of his mind but Levi seemed more like in denial than not remembering.

“No.” Levi laid with a lot of hesitation in his voice.

Erwin reached once again into his suitcase and this time, he pulled out the copy of the photo on which was Levi his mom, sitting on a couch and smiling.

As soon as Levi saw it, the edges of his expression softened and his jaw shook for a short moment.

“Are you sure you don’t remember her, Levi?” Erwin tried to be as gently as possible.

It took several, long minutes for Levi to say something again. All this time, his eyes didn’t leave the photos. He kept looking at them with something fragile and broken in his eyes but the expression on the rest of his face almost hadn't changed.

“Her name was Kuchel, wasn’t it?” Levi asked in uncertain voice.

Erwin fought the urge to frown in confusion. ‘Was’? Why did Levi use past tense? To his knowledge, she should had been still alive. How did he know she was dead?

But Erwin couldn’t ask him these kind of questions, at least not right away. It would imply that he distrust and suspicion and if he didn’t trust Levi, how could Levi trust him. So, instead, he said. “Yes, Kuchel Ackerman, do you remember her?”

“I…” Levi trailed off, still looking at Kuchel’s smiling face as she was hugging her child on the picture. Then, anger and fire flashed in his eyes and for a moment Erwin felt panic rushing through him that he somehow managed to crush every progress he made with him. Then, Levi looked him in the eye and coldly said: “He killed her.”

About billion questions popped out in Erwin’s mind and the panic was replaced by excitement. He asked as calmly as possible: “Who, Levi?”

“He…” Levi said, clearly thinking how to address whoever he was talking about. “He… Kenny. He killed her.”

Erwin frowned. Who the hell was that Kenny Levi was talking about? He had to approach this situation carefully - he was walking on more than thin ice there.  “Do you live with Kenny?”

Levi still looked angry but his features softened every time he looked at the photo. “Yeah, I do… He usually isn’t that violent, though. It was her fault. I mean… she came into our home and yelled at him and pulled a gun at him… she shouldn’t have done that, right?” his words grew more and more hesitant as if he was afraid that somebody will appear next to him and scold him for the words.

“Of course not,” Erwin lied smoothly but he couldn’t argue with Levi in this moment. “Could you describe him and what exactly she did?”

Levi frowned but nodded anyway. “It was already an evening and we just returned from a game with food. Kenny was waiting in the kitchen so I gave him the money and the food we got.” Erwin thought about his words for a second, already presuming the ‘we’ were Levi and the two dead…  Isabel and Farlan had been their names if Erwin remembered correctly. But Levi continued: “He wasn’t happy with us but it was our fault because we didn’t bring much of it. So, he punished us and locked us in our room but let the curtain on the door up. Then, after few hours, there was few knocks on the door. He told us to be silent, put the curtain down and opened the door. She got in and started yelling at him, crying, and shut the door behind her and wanted Kenny to tell her where her son was and to give him back. He said her to calm down that he didn’t know what she is talking about.. that she should had calm down but she just acted like a junkie and didn’t do what he said. She called him a lying bastard but seemed a bit confused. Then she said that he wouldn’t get away with this and that he’d pay for it. Kenny started yelling at her because sometimes he has short temper. He told her that she should look at herself and think about it again.. that she couldn’t have him.

“After that, I heard a shot fired but Kenny don’t use guns and then there was loud sound like when someone falls on the floor.” Levi paused for a moment as if to catch his breath and his eyes were telling Erwin that the other man was somewhere else and not here in the small room with him; probably in the place he was now describing. “I thought Kenny was dead but, after few minutes, he opened the door and told Isabel and Farlan to help him with the body. I saw this woman there, laying on the floor, but Kenny quickly pushed me back and closed the door. I remember how his face was twisted as if he was in pain but there was no injury on him. They had been gone for few hours before Isabel and Farlan came back to our room.”

Erwin was furious by the time Levi stopped talking. How the hell the police didn’t notice Kuchel’s body was moved after her death? That was something that should definitely be approached and he was going to have a serious conversation with Nile and one of his departments.

“Thank you,” Erwin said when he was sure none of his fury could be detected in his voice. “For telling me this.”

Levi was surprised by his words but didn’t comment on it. Instead, he asked unsurely: “He won’t have any difficulties because of it, right? It was self-defense, right?”

Erwin wanted to tear some of his hair off his head. He wanted to tell Levi that no, it wasn’t self-defense, that they were going to catch that fucking bastard and put someone in jail and he wasn’t going to see the world outside of bars ever again and if not for killing Kuchel (because a good lawyer could play the self-defense card), then for kidnapping Levi and getting him to the state he was in now. But he couldn’t, instead he needed Levi to come to this opinion himself. “What do you think, Levi? Was it self-defense?” he asked.

Levi looked him in the eyes and Erwin could literally see how the younger man was racking his brain, thinking about it. Then, he lowered his eyes and just murmured: “I don’t know.”

Erwin decided to let the topic go for now - he couldn’t expect Levi to do very large steps out of the cage he was in.

“Alright,” the blond nodded and pushed the sack of salted sticks towards Levi again. “You look hungry. Why don’t you take some?”

Levi gave impression as if he was somehow evaluating Erwin again. His grey eyes were full of insecurities about Erwin as well as curiosity. He was thinking if the blonde man who was sitting across the table from him was a threat. Finally, after a long minute, he reached for the sack and opened it with loud rustling and a puff. There was a hungry spark in him but, unlike during their first meeting, this time Levi maintained in control of his hunger and ate slowly and unhurriedly but strangely. This time, Levi was careful not to touch any of the sticks with his fingers and rather always pushed one up through the sack and bit a piece off before chewing it.

It was the reason why Erwin decided to approach Levi’s eating habits. “Why don’t you eat the food they give to you?”

Levi frowned at him as if it couldn't be clearer and monotonously said: “They give it to me on a tray. How the fuck do I know that it’s clean?”

If Erwin had expected some kind of answer, it wasn't this. “So, you are worried about hygiene.”

It wasn’t a question but Levi answered it like one. “Of fucking course I am. There could be germs or remains from someone who ate from it before me.”

“I see,” Erwin nodded knowingly although he wanted to find out what exactly caused Levi to be so concerned about hygiene when just about a week ago he was running around the city in a t-shirt stained with blood. Another topic to come back to later. “Do you want something other to drink? Coffee?”

Levi’s eyebrows raised a bit. “I’m not really a coffee person.”

“What about some tea, then?” Erwin tried.

Levi’s left lip corner lifted for a moment. It looked more like a tic than a smile but it still made Erwin’s own lips to curl up a little. “Better, but if you think I’m gonna drink any of the shit they have in the vending machines, you’re wrong.”

Erwin was pleasantly surprised that after this, they managed to have a simple, easy conversation mostly about things that could be seen as trivial. For example the tea. Levi told him that he hated coffee (and was forbidden from drinking it) since it always made him feel restless and he liked the taste of tea better, especially black. But the tea was for Levi something like a reward - if he behavioured especially well, Kenny would give him a cup of tea. Erwin managed to be indifferent for most of conversation but the more he heard about Kenny, the more he wanted him behind bars. But it was still too soon to say something like that to Levi. His connection to Kenny was still too strong.

After an hour, there was a loud knock, Levi tensed like a deer in the reflexion light and both of them turned towards the door to see Mike standing there. “Erwin, could you come here for a moment?”

“Of course,” Erwin said and raised to his feet before he looked at Levi again. “Excuse me for a moment.”

Levi didn’t say anything and Erwin doubted he would in Mike’s presence. He walked across the room and left it with Mike by his side.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Mike turned to Erwin with reproachful look in his eyes. “We’ve called Nile. He said he had no idea that they neglected Kuchel Ackerman’s case like this and he started the investigation again... looking after it personally. Also, Nana tried to find any records of people with the name Kenny or anything similar but there’s just too many of them here. You can’t be talking with him about damn tea, you need to get him to be more specific, Erwin, otherwise we won’t find that Kenny and-”

Before Mike could continue, Erwin put a hand on his shoulder. “Mike, listen to me,” he said with deadly serious voice. “You need to convince Pixis to write a request to Zackly, so Levi is given into my or yours or maybe even Nana’s care until the court is held.”

Erwin purposely named also other people even though he was sure that if Levi had been given to anyone’s care it would be his. He said it like that because this way Mike would felt like he had more control over the situation.

“What?” Mike frowned at him with shock in his eyes. “Are you nuts? Pixis will never write such request and Zackly will never oblige it. Why would they? That guy is still a suspect for killing the Magnolia girl and Church.”

“Mike,” Erwin hissed and grabbed his friend’s shoulder more tightly than he probably had to. “I won’t get anything out of him in these conditions. He has Stockholm syndrome up to his eyeballs, he doesn’t trust anyone and he refuses to eat most of the food you give him. We need to go slow on him and for that not being locked in four walls of a cell and going out only when I arrive to question him would be a great help.”

Mike looked him in the eye disapprovingly but eventually sighed and raised hands in a resigning way. “Alright. I’ll try to figure something but remember, Erwin, if he goes wild and kills someone, it’s on your head and that’s exactly what I’m going to tell Pixis.”

Erwin smiled at him, satisfied with himself and the outcome of the situation. “Thank you. That’s more than enough.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hi, Levi. How have you been?” Erwin asked when he realized he had been staring at him and the cell for few minutes now.
> 
> Levi’s expression reminded Erwin of a pissed, wet cat and the blond only waited for him to start hissing at the guard who was currently attaching the ankle monitor to him. “Pretty shitty,” came instead of hissing from Levi’s mouth after he'd looked at the man doing on the device, clearly implying whom exactly were his words about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! As I promised, here is another chapter. I hope you guys will enjoy it and please leave a commenct if you do and as always all mistakes are mine and you can also contact me on my [tumblr](http://let-iit-rock.tumblr.com) if you have any questions. :3

Erwin wasn't surprised when he received an email from Pixis in which he was informing the blond to contact him as soon as possible, preferably through a video call.

The blond sighed when he saw it. He did expect it but he did not like it. It wasn't that he disliked Pixis - he was a good man who cared for people and was even better director of the CID but every time Erwin was talking to him, he felt like a young kid, fresh from university who was trying to get a job at the CID.

Erwin didn’t call him right away because he was still in his office. Instead he finished his lunch, or, and more accurately, he tried to but Pixis' email somehow destroyed his appetite, and then he had another patient. Their session were way too short, in Erwin's opinion, and before he knew it, he was alone in the office, sitting behind his desk and staring at the computer. Eventually, after he played all the scenarios of how the conversation could go in his head, he finally called the director and waited.

It didn't take longer than a minute for Pixis to answer his call and soon enough his bald head appeared on the computer screen. He was still as old as Erwin remembered him with the same smile on his lips and the same stupid bolo tie.

“Hello, Mr. Pixis. I received your email.” Erwin gave him a polite smile. “Did you want to speak with me?”

“Hi, Erwin,” the director greeted him with the same polite tone but went straight to the point without the need for a small talk. “So, Erwin, imagine that today I got a very special request from Mike Zakarius. It states that you think Levi Ackerman is rather a victim than the culprit and that you think he has Stockholm syndrome. Do you have any proofs for that, Erwin?”

“Only my professional opinions as a psychologist.” Erwin answered, already prepared for this question. “He refuses to give us any specific informations about the Ripper’s blood or the man he lived with, Kenny. It is also possible that Kenny knows or even is the Ripper. Just him saying this is a big progress because it seems that Kenny was often punishing him for-”

“And you don’t know what form this punishments took, do you?” Pixis raised an eyebrow questioningly, his voice sharp as a knife.

Erwin knew that Pixis was only trying to throw him off balance but once again he had been prepared. “With all respect, sir, many psychologist proved that damage doesn’t have to be caused physically to be dangerous for mental, emotional and social development. Even if the bruises Levi had on his torso wouldn’t be from Kenny, his punishments of locking him in the room could still be dangerous not to mention the fact that Levi wasn’t allowed outside the house or apartment unless he was going to steal at gas station or small shops..”

“So, you admit that he could be dangerous,” Pixis frowned.

“Yes, sir,” Erwin nodded honestly. “But he doesn’t have to be. The only moment, he acted aggressive was when he had a panic attack, and no real damage was caused. As far as I know we don’t arrest victims for their psychological traumas.”

Pixis’ frown deepened and he remained silent. Then, he waved his hand, gesturing Erwin to continue.

“As I said before, it’s also not easy to gain Levi’s trust which is another characteristic feature of people who suffer from Stockholm syndrome. He absolutely denies that anything could be Kenny’s fault. And, let’s not forget-”

“Enough-” Pixis raised hand in defeat and Erwin couldn’t help but be a bit smug about his quick win against Pixis. He had to be really tired to give up this soon. “Just write me down a report about that boy’s psychological condition and send it to me, so I can hand it to Zackly and make the request.”

“Of course, sir,” Erwin nodded. “I’ll write it down as soon as possible and send it to you.”

Pixis just gave him last, polite smile and ended the call without saying goodbye, leaving the younger man staring at the black screen and white sentence ‘The called ended the video call’. After few minutes of thinking, Erwin decided that he would write the psychologist the report right here. He wrote Levi’s name but had to skip his address since Levi officially didn’t have one. He wasn’t writing even one minute, when he had to stop to look at Levi’s file. He only knew that Levi was twenty-three years old but didn’t remember properly looking at the date of birth.

After he finished writing about Levi’s personal information (not that he had a lot of them to begin with), he continued with introduction - first of him (his full name, how many years of practice he’d had, etc.) then the agents and details of the case and finally, he got to the interviews with Levi. Erwin had always had good memory which came in handy especially with his profession since he had to concern and remember every detail he saw during the interviews with his patients.

Interviews were by far the largest part of the report because he didn’t know much about Levi’s medical records (the only thing they had was a sprained ankle when he was on a ballet class when he had been eight years old) and he couldn’t even talk about previous personal history. On this subject, he mostly wrote about his childhood and presumed history with Kenny.

After the third, larger part of his professional opinion, he finished with conclusions and declaration that he would try to be able to provide Levi any help he could with his recovery and then was willing to be an expert witness during the trial.

When Erwin finished, he read it again two times, correcting himself anywhere it was necessary, and when he thought the report was as good as it could be, he sent it to Pixis.

The blond couldn’t help but stretched his aching back and yawned after that. He looked at the time in the corner of the screen and sighed, seeing he really took his time and care with writing the report. Usually, he was finished with these after about 30 minutes but Levi’s took him more than two hours.

Well, at least he could say with equanimity that he gave everything he could into it and if Zackly didn’t approve of this, it wouldn’t be because of lack of his effort. He raised from the chair, his aching back reminding him that he didn’t exercise for too long, turned off his computer, packed his stuff into suitcase and left the office.

* * *

 The next few days were very long for Erwin. He waited for anybody to give him some news of how things were going with Zackly but neither Mike nor Pixis called him or texted him. The only one who gave him some info was Hange. They called him every day, mostly complaining about how Zackly was taking his time and that Levi still didn’t eat anything that didn’t come in unopened packets. When Erwin heard from them that Levi still refused to speak with anybody but him, he couldn’t help but feel a bit smugly even though this attitude of Levi was probably obstructing the investigation. On the other hand, this attitude gave Erwin a new card into his hand - if Zackly wanted to find this Kenny and the Ripper, he had to choose Erwin to be caretaker.

The blond was, of course, aware of the difficulties that would come hand in hand with Levi. For example, there was about ninety-nine chance that Levi would try to escape from Erwin to his own ‘home’. But Erwin knew that Levi was a bright, intelligent young man so he didn’t doubt that if he showed him that if he ran off, they would find him anyway and he’d most likely even led them to his home and Kenny.

The other thing Erwin feared the most was how Levi would react to such sudden change of environment and how he’d behaved at home.

During those days, Erwin had received a call from his mom again and though he’d still felt a bit guilty about it, he couldn’t tell her that he was going to live with a boy with Stockholm syndrome. Not only that it would be against the regulations of the CID but she was able to get on a plane and yell at her son for losing his mind and staying there with her son for the next few months… which was exactly what she had done after his divorce. Erwin didn’t want to be mistaken, he loved his mother, but he loved her the most where she was right now… far, far away from him.

Finally at Thursday evening, Mike and Nana arrived at his door with few other CID agents on their tails.

“Zackly complied with your request,” Mike informed him in his usual, calm manner but with a frown between his eyebrows and bittersweet voice as if he wasn’t sure if he should be happy about it or worried. “Under few conditions.”

“Well, hello to you to,” Erwin said  with a small chuckle.

“Hi, Erwin,” Nanaba greeted and pointed at the men and a woman behind their backs. “First of all, Zackly want Levi to be in an house arrest and stay in half kilometer radius of this house or not to be farther than twenty-five meters from you. Those are technicians who are gonna install an electronic sensor into your watch and phone as well. You know, so they would be sure Levi is with you.”

“Zackly agreed quite quickly, didn’t he?” Erwin speculated after he gestured for them to come in. All of them walked into his house. The psychologist hesitated if he would actually give the watch which had belonged to his father when he still lived to the technics but Levi saw him only with them on the wrist and it would be strange if he suddenly changed them. With feeling of distrust, he took them off and handed them to one of the technics who thanked him.

“Yeah, well….” Nanaba answered and sighed. “We’re not the only ones who want to get rid of the Ripper and we didn’t get many answers from him until now. He thinks you are the most likely to get something useful out of him. Plus Pixis pretty insisted. You know, the public is getting more and more angry that the CID still didn’t find anything useful on the Ripper and the rumor has it that they want to strip Pixis of his position if he doesn’t do something about it quickly.”

“I see,” Erwin nodded. It had been some time since the world had a serial killer who would be active for so many years. He watched the technicians opening his watch and it made him feel like watching a cook opening stomach of an animal to take out the insides. He didn’t let any disgust show on his face and turned back to his friends: “Should I get Levi or do you plan on bring him here?”

“I think it would be better if you were there when we give him the ankle monitor.” Mike informed him, already having the answer prepared.

Nanaba smiled gently before mumbling quietly something that sounded like: “Because Mike is kinda scared that Levi would bite him again.”

Erwin bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from smiling when he saw the offended look Mike gave her.

The two of them were together for about one year now. Of course they never told anyone - not even Erwin - but it was crystal clear that they wanted to be with each other ever since Nanaba had been assigned to Mike as his new partner and then there had been a small, almost unnoticeable change in their dynamic and Erwin just knew. So did Hange and Moblit, and only few weeks ago, after Hange managed to get Moblit drunk bet with each other how long it would take for the blonde duo to come out to them.

“Alright,” Erwin said when he realized that neither Mike nor Nana were going to say anything else. His words caught their attention and they finally stopped staring at each other and looked at Erwin instead. “So, what time should I drop by the headquarters at tomorrow?”

“Whenever you like,” Nanaba answered. “We are going to be there anyway… But Erwin… please hide your gun somewhere where he can’t find it.”

Erwin didn’t think about it but now that Nana mentioned it it seemed logical… although… “It’s not like he can’t take my knives in the kitchen and slit my throat in my sleep if he wanted to.”

Mike frowned at him. He was doing this very often recently. “Are you still sure this all is a good idea? I think if you really needed to, Zackly wouldn’t mind if Levi stayed right where he is now.”

“No, I think he won’t try anything like that,” Erwin shook his head. “I promise the first thing in the morning, I’ll be doing, will be calling you.”

Mike seemed to calm down at these words so he nodded.

They left right after the technicians were done and as soon as the door closed behind them, Erwin put on his watch and headed upstairs to his bedroom where he kept his gun and locked it into the safe in his living room, the same one where he kept all borrowed or copied documents on cases he was solving or profiling unsubs.

After that, he went back upstairs to make sure his guestroom, which was right next to his bedroom, was in acceptable state. This room was in much more neutral colors than his own bedroom, mostly shades of grey with occasional beige. There was one large double bed, two wardrobes and small nightstands.

Neither Erwin nor his ex had ever said it out loud but they’d planned to make this room later children’s room.

Oh, well, Marie’s wish came true and if Nile wasn’t lying, they were expecting their second child now.

The thought still made him a little bit uneasy even though he didn’t love her in that way anymore.

Erwin decided to focus on something else instead of thinking about past and looked at the window. For a moment, he considered to lock all the windows in the house but then chose against it - first, Levi could feel trapped here because of it and it could dare Levi to break free, and secondly he was sure that if Levi truly wanted to escape, it wouldn’t be locked windows what would stop him.

Besides, they could always track Levi anyway.

The blond headed out of the guestroom and walked across the hall to his study to work on some reports he had to send to Pixis and also to prepare for a lecture he was going to give at Sina university next Thursday about child socialization.

His study could be described as typical. It contained a desk made from pine wood, chair, laptop, desk lamp few bookshelves on the walls that contained way too many books and file cabinets.

Unfortunate, Erwin very soon found out that he had a hard time to stayed focused. It was very rare for him and his mind was on spree thinking about every possibility how this living with Levi could turn out.

No matter how much he wished it, human’s mind couldn’t be completely predictable no matter how many years someone studied it. There could always be a dark corner in one’s mind, completely invisible even to the best psychologists. Erwin could always be wrong and maybe by this time tomorrow, he would be dead, killed by Levi’s hands.

That was something Erwin didn’t like - he hated when he was losing control over situations, over his life… over investigation.

The blond was feeling very restless now. He needed to be in charge of something.

After few more minutes, he said loudly into the silence: “Screw this,” and got up from his chair. He grabbed some clothes would make him look good and headed out.

He used to go to a certain BDSM club long ago, before he’d met Marie and fallen madly in love with her. He’d loved her so much that when she found out she really wasn’t into this kind of thing, he’d stopped going to the club. Maybe it was one of the reasons why things had ended how they’d ended. Erwin remembered how, at the end of the relationship, he felt frustrated with both Marie and the Ripper and seriously needed to take control over anything but knew that Marie wouldn’t be comfortable with him to someone else even if the scene wouldn’t have been sexual.

And after she had left him, he’d felt strangely numb and hadn’t wanted to return to the club again. Fortunately, he was still in contact with few people from there and, occasionally, he asked his friend Ian to have a scene with him.

It had never been sexual because Ian dated a woman named Rico who wasn’t into this kind of thing but understood that Ian sometimes needed to let go of things and therefore she didn’t really mind. Erwin talked to her on few occasions, actually, because she worked as Pixis’ very capable and very intelligent assistant and they got along pretty well. Sometimes, usually when Erwin was slowly drinking himself into depression and lost control over his thoughts, he thought that if Marie would have been as understanding as her, they would still be together.

Oh, well, she made her choice and so did I, the blond thought and pulled out his phone as he was getting into his car and called his friend.

“Hey, Ian,” Erwin greeted. “Would you happen to have some time to spare with me?”

* * *

 Erwin had to say that this was the first night since Mike woke him up in the middle of the night to tell him that they have something new on the Ripper that he actually slept well without needing to walk around the house for few minutes after Erwin’s mind had woken him up to think about the Ripper and Levi again. No, this time the blond didn’t wake even once.

He slept until 8 am which was especially late for him, skipped the breakfast because he wouldn’t be able to get anything into himself with the excitement he was feeling, put on some decent clothes and drove to CID HQ, stopping for gas at the way there.

He was surprised when he saw Hange already waiting for him in the entrance hall next to the security desk.

“Congratulations, Erwin Smith, it’s a boy!” they yelled at him the moment he entered which caused a lot of people to turn their heads at the two of them. “You must be very proud to be the one that has the chance to help this boy to become an acceptable member of the society.”

Erwin decided to go along with Hange for now. “Really? Oh, my heart is quivering with joy!”

Hange laughed loudly and playfully punched Erwin in his shoulder when he was in their reach. Together, they walked through the corridors, passing another agents through the elevator down.

Usually, suspects were situated on the nearest police station but the special suspects the CID wanted to have under constant surveillance were kept here, in the HQ, on the lowest level of the building. It had no windows and there had always been four members of security. Two of them were right in front of the elevator, chatting and sitting behind a desk that was connected through metal detector door. Erwin and Hange had to be screened in case they were carrying any weapons and anything that consisted of metal was left behind, in the hands of the security guards. Once they could pass through the door without the annoying beeping sound, they were free to go. The corridor was in the grey color and simple and unlike on the level up, there had been no waiting room with benches to sit on or vending machines. Just an empty corridor with two other security guards and Mike and Nana waiting for them in front of one of the massive, metal door.

“Hello.” Erwin greeted the security guards with small smile and noticed that one of them was holding an ankle monitor. He didn’t look at it for longer than a moment before he turned to Mike and his partner. “Did you tell Levi about all of this?”

“Yeah,” Mike scratched the back of his neck, nervously looking at the door. “Or at least I tried. He said nothing as always.”

Erwin nodded, they truly shouldn’t expect anything more from Levi than that… not now at least.

“Gentlemen, open the door for us please.” Nanaba turned to the guards who were moving immediately. Then, she turned to Erwin. “Of course his clothes are seized evidence so you’ll have to do some shopping for him.”

Erwin scowled a bit. “It will be pretty hard to find something fitting for him.”

Hange put their hand around his broad shoulders. “Aw, don’t worry, I’m pretty sure you’ll manage. Besides, you can always try kid clothing.” They said the last sentence very quietly as if afraid that Levi might hear them.

Erwin didn’t know whether to chuckle or frown at them. After all, Levi’s small size was partly for how skinny he was. The blond hoped he could at least fix this problem and get Levi to eat something.

When he looked at the younger man, he felt a wave of fury. He looked even worse than he looked like right after they caught him, during their first session. Under his eyes were dark circles and he could seriously use some food.  

The cell was just as small as Erwin imagined to be but there was an uncomfortably looking bed, small desk in the corner and a toilet and sink. There wasn’t any window that would let in any light which could cause health problems but CID usually didn’t let anyone live here for too long.

“Hi, Levi. How have you been?” Erwin asked when he realized he had been staring at him and the cell for few minutes now.

Levi’s expression reminded Erwin of a pissed, wet cat and the blond only waited for him to start hissing at the guard who was currently attaching the ankle monitor to him. “Pretty shitty,” came instead of hissing from Levi’s mouth after he'd looked at the man doing on the device, clearly implying whom exactly were his words about.

It wasn’t that much surprising that Levi talked to him. No matter how much some people preferred being alone, they still needed some form of social contact from time to time.

“Did Mike explained everything to you?” Erwin asked after that. “Do you want to ask about anything else?”

“Nah,” Levi grunted and got up in the moment the guard was done with his job. “I’ll go where you go or stay at your place, right? If I don’t, they’ll put me back into this dirty hole. ”

“Precisely.” Erwin nodded and, after a minute of thinking, added: “Also, I apologize but I’m afraid I forgot that you don’t have any clothes and I didn’t buy anything.”

Levi looked him deadly in the eye. “It’s just clothes.”

Erwin nodded, and without looking if Levi followed him, started walking towards the security check desk. Hange quickly caught up with him and walked by his side, their lips spread in a wide grin. “If you need anything let me know, alright? I’ll be happy to drop by and give you any parental advice.”

Erwin sneered a little at that thought. “You know that’s the reason why you and Moblit don’t have any kids. It would be a total disaster.”

“Well, actually, I think Moblit would be an outstanding father,” said Nanaba from behind them.

Mike smirked at the thought. “If his spouse didn’t happen to be a crazy maniac who would probably put their baby in a washing machine when it would need a bath, then yeah, Moblit would be a great parent.”

“Hey!” Hange turned around to give them very offended look. “I would be a great parent, too!”

“Alright,” Nana chuckled and raised her hands in defeat. “Just always remember that one time when you got yourself the two tarantulas.”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Hange looked even more offended now. “Sonny and Bean are too demanding!”

“Hange, they are spiders! They need to eat once in a month and a bit of water and without Moblit they would have starved to death!”

Finally, Hange seemed to be too offended to bother with an answer at all and the only thing they did was crossing their arms across his chest and frowning at Nana.

Erwin was given his things back at the security desk and they all walked into an elevator. The silence that fell upon them was somehow nervous with almost everybody glancing at Levi. Mike as if expecting of him to start a fight, Hange as if he was some kind of exotic animal and Nanaba with worry. Levi himself stared at the door with blank expression like he didn’t give a damn whatever was happening around him but Erwin had the feeling that the raven-haired man was paying attention to anything that was going on.

Eventually, the elevator stopped at the ground floor and they all got out. It seemed that Mike and others were convinced they had to accompany them to Erwin’s car.

“Text me so I know that you got home safely,” Mike said and Erwin didn’t need to be a genius to know that it was a hint on Levi. The shorter blond fought the urge to sneer - as if Levi was going to punch him in the face in the middle of the drive and run off.

“I will,” he answered instead with serious expression and opened the car which made a beeping sound upon being unlocked. Then, he turned to Levi who was still standing next to his car. “Get in the car, please.”

Without any word, Levi did as he was told, climbed into the passenger seat next to the driver’s and fastened his seatbelt. Erwin said goodbye to his friends and did the same before he locked the car from inside.

“Pretty nice car, huh?” Levi said and there was a hint of bitterness in his voice.

Erwin thought that the younger man had been living in the Underground until now. It wasn’t very hard to realize that since most of the robberies he and the other two, Isabel and Farlan, had been responsible for happened to be in the same area and the bodies were found also there.

“Actually, it’s not mine,” Erwin said in what he hoped was friendly tone as he was starting the car. “I’m borrowing it on long-term basis since my wife got our old ones during the divorce and all the money that were on our joint account. I try to put some money aside every time I can so I can buy a new one.”

“Divorced, huh?” Levi seemed to be comfortable in Erwin’s presence considering how he put his feet on the dashboard and leaned back.

“Yeah, for longer than a year now,” Erwin looked disapprovingly on Levi’s legs high in the air. “Could you please put them down?”

Levi made a low, irritated sound but did as he was told and sat like a normal person and looked out of the window.

For few minutes, the inside of the car was silent but it wasn’t like back in the elevator minutes ago when it had been uncomfortable and tense, now it was almost peaceful.

“So, you’re like my parent right now or something?” Levi asked suddenly after few minutes of ride.

Erwin chuckled at the thought. “I’m not exactly old enough for that don’t you think?”

“I don’t know.” Levi shrugged, his eyes piercing into Erwin. “You definitely look like a guy who already hit his thirties.”

The blond couldn’t help but feel a little bit offended by Levi’s words - he wasn’t that old! Why everybody thought he was older than he looked. “I didn’t hit my thirties yet. I’m twenty-nine.” Erwin cleverly skipped the part of telling him that only in one week he was going to turn thirty.

Levi’s lips were still but Erwin could see the sparkle of amusement in his eyes. “Not that much of a difference, old man.”

Erwin groaned: “I am not old!”

This time Levi’s lips really curled up at the corners and he didn’t say anything else.

The silence that fell upon them was relaxed and the drive was quick and smooth. Until they got stuck in a traffic jam right in the downtown. When Erwin looked out of the window to see what was happening, he caught a sight of two cars, crushed into each other and its owners in the middle of the road, yelling at each other.

He sighed and was about to tell Levi that this could take a while, when he suddenly received a punch in his throat. He yelped helplessly on the sharp, blinding pain and got punched again, this time in his ear. He was disoriented for few seconds, hearing annoying, high pitched noises.

When he came back to himself, he realized that Levi was right above him and before the blond could react, the younger man unlocked the car, opened his door and got out, running away from Erwin.

“Fuck!” Erwin cursed and tried to get out, too, but the shock made him forget about his seatbelt and it sank hurtfully into his skin. He cursed again, unfastened it as quickly as possible, let the key in the ignition, left the engine still running and went after Levi. He didn’t have time to bother with the car, not when he saw how fast Levi actually was even after all these days without proper meals and with his short legs. Erwin also noticed the missing weight on his left wrist which let him know that Levi stole his watches.

The blond’s head was still spinning from the impact on his ear and his throat hurt like hell but he kept on running anyway. He was almost hit by a car from the opposite direction, the driver angrily hooting at him.

Erwin didn’t pay him any attention, instead he focused on the quick figure of Levi’s body so he didn’t lose him.

“Levi!” Erwin tried to yell at him but it was hard with the sore throat. “Come back here!”

The blond didn’t know why he yelled it since it was pretty clear that Levi wouldn’t listen to him but he had to. The younger man got on the sidewalk and disappeared into the crowd on the main street. Erwin followed him and was grateful that he didn’t give Levi new clothes - it was Friday and even though it was still a work day, there were too many people and it would be easy for Levi to blend into the crowd.

This way, Erwin didn’t lose the sight of him and followed him, even though he moved like a snake in the grass, and few times the blond had to really focus to get a sight of him again.

As he was running, Erwin could already hear Mike’s voice in his head, saying him that he warned him, that Levi wasn’t capable of being out of cell without trying to escape, but Erwin pushed the voice into the back of his mind. He had to catch Levi no matter what.

The smaller man swerved into an alley and disappeared from Erwin’s sight for a moment. The blond went after him, shouting at few people to get out of his way and few old ladies were threatening him with canes as he was passing by them.

He turned to the left, running into the same alley Levi disappeared in. The raven-haired man was already in the middle of it, jumping up high  like a gymnast, pushed himself off the wall with one hand and leapt over the fence.

Erwin quickened his pace and - with much more less grace - did the same thing. Levi looked back at him and, when seeing that the blond was still following, quickened his pace as well.

The blond man gritted his teeth irritatedly. How could such small, hungry man run this fast?

Erwin had no idea how long he chased Levi but it felt like an eternity and like he run from one end of city to the other one and Levi still kept disappearing into alleys where he always got ahead of Erwin and Erwin always almost got him but the younger man always slipped out of Erwin’s reach and it all started again.

Just when Erwin felt his overused muscles weaken, Levi got ahead of him farther than any time before and the blond was convinced that he would lose him, a man who was currently jogging crushed into Levi and both of them hit the ground.

Erwin wanted to cry out in relief but managed to keep running, since it looked like Levi was trying to get back on his feet but he was securely underneath the much larger man who was still annoyingly asking Levi if he was alright.

“Get the fuck off!” Levi yelled and tried to get away from the man.

Fortunately, before that could happen, Erwin caught up with them, gripped Levi’s elbow and helped him up.

“Ouch!! Hey, let me go!” the shorter man started to fight Erwin and people started to stare at them even more than before; two young women even stopped walking to look at them confusedly. “You fucking pervert, let go!”

Erwin understood immediately what Levi was trying to achieve and he felt his face redden from undeserved shame and anger because Levi’s plan seemed to be working given to how the people now looked very protective of the much smaller man, even though the said man was still wearing the grey uniform he got in cell, and more and more were stopping by to look at the scene.

“Sir, could you step away from that boy?!” the man who had crushed into Levi asked.

“No!” Erwin gritted his teeth and without letting go off his iron grip on Levi, he shoved his other hand into the pocket and pulled out a wallet. “Here, see? I’m an CID agent, now please disperse. And you come with me!” Erwin was so irritated he even shook with Levi warningly.

The raven-haired man didn’t say a word but at least he stopped struggling and with resigned look he let himself to be dragged. Eventually, they stopped in an empty alley and Erwin let go of the other. This time though, he was prepared and when the smaller male tried to run away, Erwin had already expected what Levi would do before he let eased the grip and so catched him again.

“Asshole, let me go!” growled Levi like a cornered wolf ready to bite.

“Levi,” Erwin didn’t shout at Levi nor did he let his raising annoyance make it into his voice. Instead, he let urgency and desperation crawl into it. “I’m trying to help you but I can’t do that if you won’t let me.”

“I don’t need your fucking help! I’m good at my own!” Levi snarled and tried to kick the larger man but Erwin easily dodged.

“Where would you go?” Erwin asked in even more urgent voice, giving it also a hint of concern. “Back to the man who was locking you and your friends in a room? Back to the man who punished you for not bringing enough food?”

If looks could kill, Erwin would have fall on the ground, dead.

Levi was furious as he spat at the blond: “You keep on trying to make him sound like a bad person but he’s not! He’s fucking good! He’s trying to teach me how to fucking take care of myself! He’s the only one who gives a shit!”

Erwin felt anger too but not towards Levi but towards the bastard who had been manipulating Levi until he had broken. The taller man bent down so he would be on eye level with Levi and intensively stared him in the face. “I give a shit about you. The people I was talking to back at the CID HQ give a shit about you, too, otherwise they wouldn’t bother with convincing their supervisors that you can go with me. They’d let you rot and starve in that small cell, if they didn’t give a shirt about you.”

“They don’t even know me!”

“But they may get the chance if I’ll help you,” Erwin’s stare got more intense. “The man, you are living with, keeps telling you that he’s the only one who cares, doesn’t he?” the blond could see the shock in Levi’s eyes - the smaller man couldn’t believe that someone like Erwin would know the man he’d never even met so well. “What about your friends? Isabel and Farlan? I highly doubt they didn’t give a shit about you. Maybe, Kenny told you that you don’t matter but that’s not truth. He only made you believe this, repeating them over and over, until he bound you with them like with a chain. He closed all the doors in front of you and left you in the dark, made you forget that there was something else behind the unopened doors. If you truly care about someone, you don’t keep things away from them or them away from things. You don’t keep them in a cage. You let them go and wait for them to come back if they chose to.

“I can help you open the doors again but I can’t force you to go through them.” Levi stopped trying to get away from Erwin and now was staring at him with eyes wide open. It was the most open expression Erwin had ever seen on his face. But he needed to strike while the iron was still hot, so the blond continued:  “Please, just think about it, Levi, that’s the only thing I’m asking of you. If you truly think that he is good man, the only person in this whole world that gives a damn shit about you, then go.”

The raven-haired man stared at Erwin who finally let go of his elbow as if he was seeing a ghost. He was pale in the face, his eyes even wider and his mouth opened. Few following seconds felt more like hours or days and Erwin prayed he made the right choice. Then, Levi’s legs moved and he started running away from the blond.

Erwin looked after him and for a short moment, he wanted to run after him. Then he decided not to. It wasn’t like he couldn’t just call Mike to help him track the raven-haired man again. Plus, something about Levi’s another attempt to escape felt off.

His suspicion proved to be correct when Levi looked back at him after few meters of running, and when he saw that the tall blond didn’t move, he stopped in his tracks and turned to be facing him.

For few long, terrifying minutes, they were just staring at each other, neither of them moving. Then, slowly, Levi started walking back to Erwin.

The blond didn’t move; he thought this was something Levi had to do alone.

When Levi finally reached him, he didn’t look him in the eyes like a child that was expecting to be scolded for bad behaviour and Erwin wondered if this was another thing that uncle Kenny teached him to do.

“Here.” Levi muttered and handed Erwin back his father’s watch.

For a second, Erwin wanted to take it, but decided against it. What was that quote? If you love something, set it free. “You can keep it for now.”

A question of how Levi knew that one of the tracking device was in Erwin’s watch pop up in the blond mind but he decided to let it go for now. He said: “Come on,” and started walking back to the other end of the empty alley. “Let’s get back to the car.”

The raven-haired man snorted and the left corner of his lips curled up in a cute way. “If you honestly think the car will still be there, you’re wrong.”

Levi was, of course, completely right.

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! I'm sorry for the late reply but I've been having some personal troubles lately. Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter!

When they arrived at the road where Erwin left his car, the traffic was again smooth and his car wasn’t there. Levi whispered silent: “I told you so.” but Erwin ignored him, took out his phone and called for a cab.

The driver looked at them suspiciously but Erwin couldn’t blame him. Levi was still wearing the uniform from the cell and Erwin stunk of sweat, his hair were messy and fell into his eyes. They looked like a pair of junkies - Erwin like a classy junkie since he was still in his suit but still a junkie.

Fortunately, he didn’t question them and set the vehicle into motion.

Levi had been quiet the whole ride and the blond sitting next to him decided to use the time to call Mike. Erwin had no doubt that he was worried by now because Erwin didn’t call him as he promised. When he looked at the screen of his phone, he found out that he had two missed calls. One from Mike and one from Nile.

Mike picked the call up after two rings, saying one word: “Erwin.” He'd said it calmly but the shorter blond could hear the irritation and anger in his friend’s voice.

“Sorry, for calling you this late,” apologized Erwin. “But there had been a traffic jam and-”

“So, you’re saying that in the middle of the traffic jam you decided to go jogging with Levi and left the car with the key still in ignition?” Mike had been furious by the time he finished and by the sound of his voice he was losing his patience with Erwin. “Nile just called me. Said that someone reported an abandoned car at road. They sent traffic warden and they first tried to contact its owner. Unfortunately, the company doesn't have your phone number just the email address. Until Nile found out about the car. He tried to call you but it looks like you were busy.”

Erwin took a deep breath. He thought about what he should say to his friend. But he was worried that if he told the truth Levi could get a feeling he was telling on him.  That wouldn’t do any good to Erwin’s goal, to gain his trust, so he decided to lie… at least for now. “Actually, yes.” He confirmed. “I completely forgot about the car and by the time we got back, just few minutes ago, it was already too late. We didn’t realize just how much time we spent out there. So, sorry.”

“Erwin…” Mike’s voice sounded dangerous now. He was one of the few people who was able to sometimes see through Erwin’s lies, just like one could see through a glass of limpid water. And, right now, Erwin wasn’t trying to lie hard. He could tell Mike much more believable story if he wanted to. He planned to tell the truth Mike later, when there would be no Levi to overhear their conversation.

“Listen to me, Mike.” Erwin said not giving his friend the chance to blister him for being a careless liar. “Everything is fine right now and I and Levi are on our way home. If something serious and worrisome happens, I promise I’ll let you know.”

The CID agent was silent for a minute. Erwin was sure the other man had a calculating look on his face, thinking whether he could take Erwin’s word on it. Finally, he said in resignation: “Alright, I believe you. Just don’t screw this up. Should I call Nile and let him know when you’ll pick up your car or you’ll do it yourself?”

As much as Erwin loved Nile, another friend of his he met at college, he didn’t want to talk to him right now. “Please, do it. I’m too tired to speak with him.”

Although Mike chuckled, it wasn't with as much amusement as it should. “Okay. Give me a call tomorrow.”

“Will do,” Erwin promised and hung up, putting the phone back to his pocket. As he was doing that, his look wandered to his right side. He noticed that Levi was staring at him with those beautiful, piercing grey eyes. He looked at the blond as if he was a riddle he couldn’t solve and when  their eyes met and Erwin swore he saw gratitude . Erwin used the opportunity and looked at those eyes longer than he should. They just had such strange color. It was like looking on reflections of the Moon on  calm, midnight sea.

The blond forced his lips into a friendly smile and ignored his racing heart. Then, he looked out of the window to see if they are near his neighborhood. The driver pulled over right in front of Erwin’s house.

The blond paid him, the car drove away fast and Erwin got a full view on the other side of the road. The huge house there with always green grass belonged to his oldest neighbor Mrs. Johnson. She was, once again, spying on him.

“Hey, that old hag’s looking at us.” Levi commented, watching that certain person with intimidating eyes.

“Of course she is,” Erwin mumbled loudly enough for the smaller man to hear. Then, he addressed the old lady: “Good afternoon, Mrs. Johnson!”

The called woman pretended to be surprised by their presence. She stopped watering her,drowning, flowers besides her pathway. Then, she looked up at them and yelled in strong, British accent: “Hello there Mr. Smith. I didn’t notice you! How are you today? Nice weather, isn’t it? Oh, and who’s this young man? Is he your nephew? Hi! Do you want to come in for a cup of tea?” she almost didn't let the blond to say anything.

Erwin was quick to shook his head. “No, thank you, madam, we’re pretty tired. But maybe later.” the psychologist promised and touched Levi’s elbow to let him know they were going inside. Levi understood and together they disappeared into Erwin’s house.

The old lady was still yelling at them again: “What a shame!” but the tall man already closed the door behind his shorter companion.

“What a hag.” Levi slurred.

Erwin let out a gentle chuckle. “You wouldn’t believe. She knows everything about everyone on this street, even things which aren’t true. Her favorite activity after her husband died became watching others and telling crazy stories about them. Once, she came to conclusion that I am a drug dealer and while I was having an argument with my friend here, she called the cops. She was convinced that I was brutally murdering him.”

Levi gave out a light laugh. “A golden boy like you? No way.”

The other man smiled. “Well, she still thinks I’m a criminal. Just so you know what to expect from her in case she managed to corner you somewhere and drag you to her lair.”

Levi’s lips were still curled when he started to look around at the equipment of Erwin’s house. The taller man wanted the smile to never leave Levi’s lips.

Unfortunately, his wish didn’t come true because the soft smile was replaced by slight frown between his eyebrows.

“Is something wrong?” Erwin sounded careful when he asked.

Levi turned to him with blank expression. “No.”

The blond decided not to push it anymore and just nodded and asked: “Alright… now, do you want to show the house?”

“Sure.” Levi turned his gaze aside from Erwin. It was more than crystal clear that the raven-haired man felt uncomfortable here. And, as soon as they walked into the dining room, Levi glowered at his surroundings.

He ran his fingers across the minibar in the corner. “CID must pay pretty well.”

“Yeah, it does,” Erwin agreed. “But I don’t work for them full-time. I’m only their consultant. That means they call me, I come and help them with profiling murders or culprits of crimes. Then, I get paid and go home again or to session with a client.”

“I see,” Levi gave him a nod and, although his expression was blank, Erwin saw a sparkle of curiosity in his eyes. “I thought you worked there full-time... I think I once overheard a radio. People talked about you and said you're one of those who works on the Ripper case.”

This was something too close to Erwin. He didn’t want to talk about it, didn’t want to remember that time. The media were crushing him and the rest of his team for taking too much time with capturing the Ripper. It wasn't like the media stopped by now, but the Ripper seemed to be on a pause and his case wasn’t too topical. Just like that time. Erwin remembered how, shortly after he was forced to leave the case, the people started to be more interested in the newly discovered illegitimate child of the mayor in Sina. At that time, everybody forgot about the Ripper for few following weeks.

Of course Erwin knew that the Ripper had to be an intelligent, patient and well organized man. And given to how Erwin and others profiled him, he was also unlikely going to stop until they’d catch him. He took great pride of his wicked work and left no evidence at the crime scenes. The only time when they got close to him was when one of his victims, young woman, put up a fight and bit him into his hand. He had killed her anyway but before he could dispose of the evidence (and drag her into somewhere where he could put bleach into her mouth like he did with one other victim before), he had been interrupted by a group of young men who were on their way out of a bar. The Ripper ran off at that time and left the body.

Erwin realized he got lost in his thoughts and Levi was staring at him with even more curiosity in his eyes. “I’m sorry, I paused in thought. You asked about the Ripper case right? Well, I used to work for CID full-time but I…” Erwin paused for a second, trying to keep himself collected. “I got fired actually.”

“Fired?” Levi's voice was surprised. Both of them just stood in the room.

“Yes,” Erwin confirmed and his voice was calm even though his heart was racing. It felt like being naked, talking about it. He never discussed it, not even with his friends. “I… drank a lot at that time and I’ve been going through the divorce with my ex wife.”

“Oh,” This time, Levi wasn't so surprised. “That would explain why you live in such big ass house by yourself.”

“I suppose.” Erwin shrugged, trying to look nonchalant before he pointed back to the door. “Come, let me show you the rest of the house.”

Levi didn’t answer but let himself to be led. First, they walked into living room, where he looked at Erwin’s pictures on the wall. Then the blond walked upstairs with him and showed where was his bedroom and where Levi would sleep.

“If you need something and I’m in my room, just knock.” Erwin said and, after Levi nodded in agreement, he continued: “Well, since I forgot to buy you clothes, maybe we could go shopping later today or tomorrow. Just say when you want to. Would you mind borrowing some of my old for now?”

Levi snorted. “Your shirt would look like a fucking dress on someone like me.”

Erwin bit the insides of his cheeks to stop himself from laughing. “You’re right but wouldn’t you feel more comfortable in my shirt than in that dirty uniform?”

Levi looked at himself and his face contorted in disgust. “Yeah, alright I’ll take it.”

They went back to Erwin’s room, the blond opened the wardrobe and pulled out his favorite T-shirt. It was black with scales symbol he got for Christmas from Hange few years ago. It was a size smaller so it would fit closely to Erwin’s well-built body and it wouldn’t be as big on Levi.

The shorter man took it and without words he looked at the white, Libra symbol.

“I’ll borrow you the pants Hange forgot here few weeks ago since I’m sure you wouldn’t fit in my own.” Levi raised one of his eyebrows, looking at Erwin with a hint of curiosity and Erwin felt the need to explain it. “They forget to change into casual clothes at work and their parents sometimes show at their place without warning. They come here to get changed because their mother is always looking for excuses to scold them. Anyway, I’m sure you want to take a shower before changing into clean clothes.” Erwin continued. “The bathroom is next to the door of your room. The towels are already there. I’ll be downstairs, so come there after you finish and take as much time as you need.  I'll bring you the pants.”

Levi nodded still looking at the shirt in his hands. “Alright.”

They both walked out of the room. Erwin went downstairs for pants and Levi disappeared into the bathroom.

The blond walked into the entrance hall. He headed to the coat-stand and shoe rack on which Erwin had Hange’s pants folded up in case they’d drop by. He went back upstairs, knocked on the door before going in.

“Levi, I’m bringing you the-” Erwin faltered in the middle of the sentence but after few seconds, he added: “-pants.”

Levi looked at him with his usual, blank expression as if he wasn’t standing in front of Erwin’s corner bath completely naked. In Erwin’s mind, at times when he was too exhausted to stop himself from thinking about this, he imagined Levi to be slim and fit and attractive. He knew that reality was different but he was surprised anyway, seeing Levi’s body again. And this time, it was in real life and not on a picture.

The bruises were mostly faded and now colored in light yellow. His pale skin still hugged his bones. It even showed the edges and shapes of every joint, every bone. There were a lot of scars, mostly smaller ones but there had been few larger, too. Erwin’s attention caught especially the one stretched from his shoulder blade to his side. But Erwin didn't have enough time to look at it too much because Levi turned around to face him. All the scars let Erwin know that the abuse Levi had endured wasn’t just emotional and mental.

“Thank you,” Levi said and walked to Erwin to take the pants. There was no shame in his behavior. Erwin could only guess that being naked was something usual when he had been living with that Kenny.

The blond quickly put on his mask of calmness again and smiled. “You’re welcome. I’ll be waiting downstairs.”

Levi didn’t say anything else, just stepped inside the bath. Erwin left the room and walked downstairs. His heart was racing, pounding fiercely within his chest. Now, that he was outside the bathroom, he felt the heat in his cheeks as they were reddening.

He had seen Levi naked and the shorter man didn’t even react. It was strange to be ashamed even though he was the one still fully and properly clothed.

He shook his head to silence his loud thoughts, entered the kitchen and opened the fridge to look at what he had inside. He wasn’t exactly an expert cook, the only one of his friends who was actually good at this skill was Moblit but he thought he could manage few omelettes.

He pulled a pan out of the cupboard and got down to cooking.

He was just finishing the third, when he noticed Levi standing in the door. Just like they'd thought, the clothes, Erwin gave to him, were too big and the T-shirt looked like short dress. Levi’s hair were still wet and, even though his body didn’t change, he looked somehow healthier than before.

“Are you hungry?” Erwin asked in raspy voice. Levi surprised him. There had been few people who could sneak up behind the blond.

Levi looked in the eye and took too long with an answer for it to be truth. “No.”

“Well, I am.” Erwin smiled gently. “Come here. I’ll give you some on a plate. You don’t have to eat it all.”

The blond turned back to omelettes but when he was given no answer from Levi, he looked over his shoulder. The shorter man was wearing uncertain expression on his face. His pupils were moving quickly from one side to the other as if he didn’t know what he was supposed to do.

“What’s wrong, Levi?” Erwin asked with serious voice, straightening up to look at him properly.

Levi looked at him with distrust, not knowing what to expect of the blond. “I don’t have to play a game to get food?”

Every alarming bell ringed in Erwin’s head. This was probably one of the first subjects he had to approach carefully while living with Levi. “Games? What kind of games do you mean?”

“I…”

Some people could probably interpret Levi’s nervous looking around the room and not into other person's eyes as shyness but Erwin had the feeling that this wasn't it. No, the looking around was wariness and distrust. “I always have to do something… to deserve the food. Like going out and bringing something Kenny told us to get. He taught us that to survive out there.”

Erwin looked Levi in the eye, thinking for a moment, what he should say. Then, he put on a friendly smile and informed him: “Well, in this house, you don’t have to do anything to deserve fulfilling basic human needs. You can do whatever you want in my home as long as you don’t destroy anything on purpose. If you want to eat, just open the fridge and take whatever you want. Now, I’m going to put the omelette on your plate. Please, take the seat and wait until I’m done.”

Levi’s expression became blank again. “Okay.” he said and walked over to the small table with two chairs and sat down.

Erwin meanwhile pulled out the eggs, cheese and butter. He glanced at Levi again and asked: “What games did you play?”

“It depended on Kenny’s mood,” Levi answered, considering every word. “Sometimes he sent us into the store to get some groceries. Other times we had to scrub the floor until he saw himself in the reflection of it.”

The footage of Levi and his friends robbing a grocery store came to Erwin’s mind. He knew that this wasn’t a comfortable subject but he had to ask: “When he sent you there, did he give you money?”

Levi took few seconds and thought about the question, considering whether to say the truth until finally, he answered: “No. He gave me a gun. Where would be the point of playing if he gave us everything we needed?”

“I see,” Erwin understood. He had to write this confession down later, probably in his first report for Pixis. He could already see the long interrogation he was going to have to go through. For some reason, some people were still thinking Stockholm syndrome wasn’t real. People always, and wrongfully so, thought it was something what the victims used  to wash their hands off their crimes. To get acquitted, to get off easy.

It was hard phenomenon to prove if the people didn’t want it to be proven. Erwin was sure that Zackly would want him to document this in every detail.

The blond slowly put the food on the plate he took out of the cupboard and placed it in front of Levi along with a fork and a knife.

“Thanks,” Levi mumbled and started eating so quickly he made choking sounds a lot. Erwin considered giving him another one but decided against it. If he started to eat much after being hungry for such a long time, he could get a stomach ache.

In the end, it didn't look like Levi was going to eat the whole thing. He managed to eat hardly half of it, before he was full and pushed the plate away.

Erwin was sitting opposite him at the moment, eating much slower than his companion.

Levi didn’t move from his seat and instead watched Erwin until the blond had finished and then both of them got up. Erwin decided he wouldn’t wash the dishes and just put the plates into the sink.

The raven-haired man growled at him disapprovingly when he saw it and clicked his tongue quietly.

“Is something wrong?” Erwin asked, looking at the dishes with confusion.

“Aren’t you gonna wash it?”

“Um, no,” Erwin answered uncertainly. “Why?”

Levi clicked his tongue. “It’s fucking disgusting. We used to wash dishes after every meal.”

“You didn’t have a dishwasher?” Erwin asked with raised eyebrows. He knew that not all people had their kitchen furnished with modern furniture but he thought most of households had it.

“No. We had to do it manually,” Levi growled. It looked like every subject about his former home made him feel extremely uncomfortably. And the fact that when Levi got uncomfortable he also got angry, didn't help at all. “Right after we all finished the food. Put it into the fucking dishwasher so at least nobody can see it."

Erwin chuckled but decided to do what Levi asked for. He also put the leftovers into a bowl into the fridge. When he finished and turned around, he found out that Levi was waiting for him.

The blond planned to question Levi again, of course, but the surroundings was still too fresh. He had to wait for a while for Levi to get used to his temporary home.

“Alright,”  Erwin nodded. “What do you want to do now?”

“What?” Levi  asked in confusion.

“I asked what do you want to do?”

Silence fell upon the room while Levi was processing the question. The blond kept looking at him the whole time and it looked Levi was trying to find the ‘right’ answer.

“Let rephrase it for you, Levi,” said Erwin with patient voice. “What do you usually do with your free time?”

“Nothing,” Levi shrugged. “I didn’t have any free time until now. Only Kenny would decide what was needed to do. Sometimes I wash the dishes, sometimes I clean the windows, other times I vacuum. It depend on him. Sometimes he let us watch the TV.”

“Alright,” Erwin nodded. Well, at least Levi still remembered how to read. “Have you ever thought what would you want to do if you wouldn’t be doing these activities?”

“No.” Levi’s answer was definite, the taller man could hear it in its tone. Of course he didn’t think about it. If person had no options and was never even given any, how could he think about something if it was unreachable.

“Do you like to read? Or would you rather watch TV?” asked Erwin.

Levi was considering it for few seconds, before he said: “I don’t know.”

Levi’s answers were pretty frustrating but Erwin was a patient man... usually.  He smiled at him and suggested: “Well, maybe you could find out.”

They both moved to the living room, where Erwin showed the smaller man his huge bookshelf and told him that he could borrow any book he wanted to read. Levi seemed to be still a bit unsure but after Erwin turned on the TV and sat down on coach, he started to examine the room. He didn’t seem to be interested in a TV show about a guy fighting crimes with an arrow.

Erwin watched him with the corner of his eye. When Levi snorted mockingly, he turned his head to looked at him properly.

“What's wrong?” he asked.

“You’ve got all your books sorted by name of the author.” Levi chuckled.

Erwin tried not to be offended by the younger man’s mocking voice. Eventually, he asked with confusion in his voice: “What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing,” Levi shook his head. “I just mean that you don’t look like a type for that. You look like the type that’s messy and can’t remember where he put his notes all the time.”

“Well, thank you!” Erwin's voice turned sarcastic.

The corners of Levi’s lips were curled up, only slightly, but still so and Erwin watched his every movement. The smaller man took one book of the shelf, walked towards Erwin's favorite chair and twisted his legs into strange angle that would probably hurt if anybody without proper training of flexibility tried it.

“What?” Levi caught him staring and looked him in the eye, his face blank as before bus his eyes hard and prepared to go into defense.

“I just thought you chose excellent book,” Erwin said without hesitation even though he inspected what Levi chose after those words had left his mouth. It was one of Hange’s favorite The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. They completely loved all his books and forced all of their friends to read it. And this one if what Moblit had said was true they read to their tarantulas like a bedtime story.

Erwin had to admit that that writer’s style was… unique. The blond himself enjoyed the American Gods very much.

Levi looked at the cover and then back to Erwin. “I just thought the cover looked nice.” the raven-haired man shrugged and opened the book.

Even though both Erwin and Levi were silent for most of the time, the mood was relaxed and calm. Just like the blond thought, Levi wasn’t exactly talkative person and when he did talk, he did so in calm, almost indifferent and monotonous tone.

He also seemed to like uncomfortable positions otherwise Erwin couldn’t explain why he was sprawled on the armchair with one leg over one of the arms and his head leaned backwards over the other arm.

Erwin noticed that Levi was also a slow reader and sometimes a slight frown of focus appeared between his thin eyebrows as he was trying to understand the word but he never asked Erwin to help him with it so the blond stayed silent. The blond thought Levi could use a bit of independence because his life had been depended on Kenny’s decisions until now.

The blond thought it was a small wonder that Levi could still read. It looked like Kenny didn’t let him do that and the last time he had the opportunity to read something longer than a food label was all those years ago when he had been still going to school.

Erwin had already thought about it. He decided that if they managed to acquit him, he would tell him about the opportunity to go to a community school to get at least some education. Plus, Erwin was pretty sure Levi wouldn’t stop at finishing only the primary education. He’d read the school records that were written about Levi when he'd been still in school. Apparently, he had been an extremely bright and intelligent child and the teacher was trying to get him into a better school. Unfortunately, Levi’s mother hadn’t had enough money to move from the Underground or to let Levi commute to a school outside.

After several hours, Levi folded the corner of the page where he ended. When he saw it, Erwin felt strong urge to pull his hair out in horror. Then, Levi put the book aside and rubbed his eyes.

“Do you like it?” Erwin asked, trying to stay calm on the savageness Levi'd just done.

“It’s okay, I guess,” Levi shrugged. “It’s interesting. Who wouldn’t want to be raised by a bunch of ghosts and a vampire.”

Erwin chuckled. “I suppose that would be interesting.”

Levi turned his eyes on the TV as if he didn’t realize it had been there until now. “What are you watching?”

Erwin turned back to the screen. He didn’t even notice when the action movie stopped and a soap-opera started. Some woman named Teresa was currently standing in front of an altar, crying while two men were fighting in the aisle. It looked very dramatic.

Levi snorted at the scene and Erwin changed the channels, trying to ignore his burning ears.  Unfortunately, Levi wasn't going  to let that go. “You know there’s no shame in watching whatever you enjoy.”

Erwin groaned: “I don’t enjoy telenovelas!”

“You don’t have to lie to me, big guy. I won't tell anybody.” Levi promised. “Except for the old hag that lives across the street.”

Erwin gave him a cold look but he couldn’t keep that expression for long. Not when he saw another slight smile playing on Levi’s lips. It was worthy every humiliation he might be feeling.

* * *

 

They went to sleep early that night. Erwin reheated the leftovers for dinner then, to Levi’s satisfaction, put the plates and flatware in the dishwasher and turned it on.

Erwin gave Levi more clothes to sleep in and told him again that if Levi needed anything, he could always knock on his door. After that, they wished each other a good night and both went to their rooms.

The blond didn’t go straight to bed but walked into his bathroom which was connected to this bedroom to take a shower. He was still sweaty from the chase and wanted nothing more than to wash that memory away. Every time Erwin saw a victim to defend their abuser or, as he could see with Levi, running back to them, it made his stomach twist uncomfortably. He knew the psychological reasons but it still didn’t make him feel any better.

After Erwin was finished with his hygiene in bathroom, he went back to the room and laid down on the bed.

It took him ten minutes to realize he wasn’t going to sleep anytime soon. He was still tensed from all the events this day and he had the need to call Ian again but it was too soon after their last play and he didn’t want to leave Levi here alone.

While he was thinking about it, he decided that the shorter man needed a phone. Erwin couldn’t bring him along to his office and he didn’t want to. He wanted Levi to spend few hours a day alone in the following week.

He decided that tomorrow, he would take Levi outside to do some shopping because he needed clothes and if they had to opportunity, he’d get the other man man also a phone.

Erwin continued to lie on the bed for the next few hours and just when he was slipping into the dreamland, he heard a noise of something hitting the floor. He waited few seconds for more noises but nothing came.

He decided to check it anyway and got up from bed. After he walked in the hallway, he found out the door to Levi’s room were open and the lights in there were still on, the beams shining on the dark hallway.

Erwin murmured on the sudden light and narrowed his eyes which were trying to adapt it. He walked over there and took a look inside.

To say what he saw surprised him would be an underestimation. Levi stood on a chair in the corner and tried to reach the top of a tall cabinet in the corner of his room, while having a piece of cloth in his right hand.

Erwin stared at him for few minutes as the smaller man tried to reach to the corners of the cabinet with his hand, taking in short sharp breaths. Finally, Erwin asked: “What are you doing?”

Levi jerked with the surprise of the other man’s presence but didn’t let out any frightened sound. Once he overcame the surprise, he stared at the blond with hard look in his silverish eyes. “How long since you've clean the dust here? It’s fucking dirty.” He looked back at the cabinet and pulled his hand back, showing Erwin the wet cloth that used to be white but now was covered with grey dust. Then, the raven-haired man throw it in the bucket he on the floor next to the chair.

“Well, I don’t really go in here so it’s possible it had been few weeks.” Erwin answered, looking already around the room to find anything more unhygienic so he could fix it before Levi'd notice it.

Levi made a sound of disgusted: “Tch!” and murmured something about dirty pigs. Then, he step down from the chair.

“Did you find anything else unsuitable for you?” Erwin asked with raised eyebrow. Just in that moment he noticed his T-shirt and Hange’s pants. They were perfectly folded at the desk in the corner from where the shorter man also took the chair.

“This whole place needs to be vacuumed.” Levi growled, dusting the headboard of the small bed that was under the window.

Erwin looked around and asked: “Do you want to do it right now?”

It was strange to see Levi go from all decisive and firm man to a doubtful and unsure person every time Erwin asked about what he wanted. The taller man supposed he hadn't been given that option often and thus he wasn't sure what to say. Levi even looked like he still thought it was all a test and if he said he wanted something, Erwin didn't wish him to, he would be punished.

The blond kept his voice and expression serious in hope Levi wouldn't think the question was a mocking or a trap.

“Yeah.” Finally the smaller man said and lowered his eyes with excuse to finish the dusting on window sill.

“Okay,” Erwin nodded and walked out of Levi's room to get the vacuum cleaner. It looked like they had some cleaning to do before they'd go to sleep. Not that Erwin was going to sleep very much that night anyway.

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It sounded so sensual and teasing with Levi’s voice coloring it, like a curse that bounded Erwin with ropes of desire and made his blood rushing in his veins. His heart started beating even faster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I'm really sorry for the late update but I have another semester ahead of me and I started to work on my thesis, so I didn't have much time to do anything else. Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter and please, leave a comment :)

If someone told Erwin that a person could actually put on some weight only during one weekend, he wouldn't believe them but now he saw it with his own eyes. Levi managed to eat a bit more during those two days to the point Erwin told him to slow down. During the Saturday, they went to a shopping mall to get Levi some clothes. The shorter man didn't seem to enjoy the huge crowds very much which was to be expected and therefore they decided not to go there until the evening when most of people would already be home. It turned out to be a good decision because Levi was extremely anxious as it was and if they'd gone there sooner, he might had gotten a panic attack.

Mrs. Johnson still seemed to be curious who exactly Levi was and decided to visit them at Saturday under false pretenses to bring Erwin a homemade apple pie. The blond, to her point of view, very rudely took the pie and literally slammed the door in her face after telling her he had been too busy but he’d return the plate.

Levi, with sparkle of amusement in his eyes, watched the woman walking back to her own house while angrily looking over her shoulder.

“She probably thinks you’re some under-aged kid I’m blackmailing to do every possible twisted thing,” Erwin declared with a resigned sigh.

Levi chuckled again. “I can imagine running to her, yelling for help and she would’ve probably pull a shotgun at you. These kinds of women have whole collections of weapons in their home.”

Erwin laughed at the idea: “Now that I think of it her husband was a marine, so she probably still keeps his guns there.”

“Of course she does,” Levi stated as if it had been logical. “People who act the sweetest are almost always full of shit and would fucking kill you if they thought you were a threat.”

Erwin had to admit that people shouldn't be taken lightly just because they seemed to be sweet or nice. A lot of murders which he created profile for actually seemed to be shy and kind people.

The Sunday went by quickly and Levi spent almost all day cleaning. It seemed to be a small obsession of Levi and the blond decided he wouldn’t approach this habit for now because the activity seemed to calm Levi down.

Erwin was writing another provisional profile for a murderer of another state and then writing down notes for the lecture.

In the evening, Erwin told Levi that he wouldn’t be home tomorrow until afternoon. Levi just shrugged and assured him he doesn’t mind that. By the end of the day, they agreed that if Levi wanted anything or needed some kind of an advice about something considering the house, he’d call Erwin.

On Monday, Erwin got up earlier than usually. Normally, he’d grab a coffee and breakfast on his way to work but today he decided to cook eggs and bacon and leave it there for Levi and then eat himself a bowl of yogurt and cereal. He couldn’t just eat unhealthy things if he was to keep his figure and with Levi in his house, he didn’t bother with cooking anything complicated and they rather ordered pizza and Thai food.

Erwin finished his meal, packed the food in aluminum foil and left it on the table in kitchen for Levi to eat after he’d wake up.

He left the house with his returned car and drove to work.

Erwin apologized to his patients in advance in case Levi would call him and interrupted their sessions about something but in the end the raven-haired man didn’t need his help.

It was the blond’s iron will that kept him from thinking about Levi all over again. Mainly because he was going to try to talk to him about the case again tonight. He already got few texts from Mike asking about his progress and at least five missed calls from Hange which he refused to answer until he talked to the younger man. He sent a text to both of them, assuring them that everything was fine and he’d inform them about any new information the moment he’d get them out of Levi.

During the session with Mikasa, he had been happy to find out she started to socialize with other people from campus and that all of them were going to come on his lecture on Thursday. Erwin couldn’t help but feel a bit smug when he found out that the young woman praised him and his abilities as a psychologist in front of others.

After he finished with his last patient, he headed to a supermarket to get something with which he could actually cook because, and it was time to face it, he couldn’t live on pizza and Thai-food forever.

When he got home, he heard sounds from TV. It felt so strange to come home with someone already there after so much time alone. He hang up his coat and walked into the living room.

Levi was sitting at one of Erwin’s armchair again - it seemed like the raven-haired man grew fond of that particular piece of furniture - in almost gymnastic position and paying absolutely no attention to the TV screen as he was busy with reading book again.

“Hi,” Levi greeted without taking his eyes off the book page.

“Why do you have the TV running if you don’t watch it?” Erwin asked, careful so his voice wouldn’t be blaming, just curious.

“I don’t know,” Levi shrugged. His pupils stopped moving and Erwin knew that he should dig after the answer more.

“Are you sure?” the blond asked. “There is no need to lie to me, Levi, I’m not here to judge you.”

“Everyone’s always judging,” Levi stated without any change of his position. “It’s in human’s nature.”

“You’re avoiding the question.” Erwin pointed calmly and put down his suitcase.

There was a moment of silence before Levi closed his eyes and sighed, almost tiredly: “I don’t like the silence.”

So, they had something common after all: “Well, that makes two of us, then.” Erwin smiled as kindly as possible, thinking it was kind of strange that the silence of an empty house made him feel uneasy but yesterday, when Levi was silent most of the day anyway, felt much more bearable. “I’m going to cook something for us. You can keep reading, I’ll call you when the meal’s ready.”

“Okay,” Levi finally looked at him and Erwin wondered if his patient knew the blond chose his words so carefully it wouldn’t appear that he ordered Levi around; that was the last thing Erwin wanted. He was already sure Levi was very intelligent and, even though at first sight he didn’t look like it, very shrewd but not in a bad sense of word. Erwin assumed the younger man already noticed that.

Every time Levi looked at the blond with those narrow, yet perfect eyes, Erwin felt hot all over, like a stupid teenager, and his heart thumped so hard behind his rib cage he felt like it could easily pop out like the creature in Alien. He knew that none of the feelings of desire he felt didn’t make it to his face and he still looked composed, but he still felt like Levi saw right through him anyway.

The blond turned around to go to kitchen without saying anything more but only after few steps, he remembered that he wanted to tell Levi something and he had to come back.

Levi’s eyes weren’t on the book but still not leaving the door, when Erwin arrived again in the door frame. “Levi,” the taller man said in serious voice. “I’d like to speak with you after the meal again as a psychologist with his patient.”

The raven-haired man narrowed his eyes. “Again?” he sounded irritated.

“I’m sorry but it’s a necessity,” Erwin apologized without really meaning it. “You know it’s also for your sake,” he decided he wouldn’t deny the fact that the main goal of Ewrin’s superiors was only to get some answers about Kenny and the homicides. “I want to prove your innocence if it’ll be possible.”

Levi’s lips escaped another _tch_ sound but he didn’t say anything else, only glanced into the book again.

Erwin took that as his disapproving agreement with it.

The psychologist left the living room and walked to the kitchen to prepare the meal. He decided that tonight, they’d have tuna pasta salad. He let the pasta boil, chopped celery and added peas and a bit mayonnaise before he combined it all with cooked pasta.

He also noticed that his whole kitchen had this nice smell of cleanliness and all the furniture in the kitchen looked tidy and neat.

Erwin was done soon and decided that maybe for once they could eat it in the living room, but suddenly, as if summoned just after Erwin finished, Levi appeared in the door and looked around, seeking the food like a hungry cat.

It was proven that people who weren’t hungry were more likely to be happy and thus were more cooperative.

Erwin handed him the bowl and spoon and looked, with the corner of his eyes, as the younger man sat at the small kitchen desk and started to eat.

The blond served the meal in his bowl and sat down opposite him. Neither of them said a word, but just like before, the silence had been comfortable.

Once they were both finished, the taller man got up from the table and put the tableware they used into the dishwasher. He found it, unsurprisingly, empty.

“Let’s get this over with,” Levi growled and walked back to the living room with Erwin following him.

In the living room, Erwin took off the jacket and asked Levi while going to his safe: “I have to record our session for your trial. I hope you don’t mind.”

“It’s not like I can do a shit about it, is it?” Levi growled but there was no real aggression in his voice, only irritation. He sat down in his favorite armchair, pulling his legs to his chest.

Erwin gave him a reassuring smile and took out a camcorder with tripod, placing it in front of Levi but not in his personal space. For a while, Erwin struggled with the settings until he finally got it right. Then, the blond pulled another chair closer, right next to the tripod and camcorder, turned off his phone and started recording.

“Hello, my name is Psy.D. Erwin Smith.” Erwin started but before he could add the date and time, Levi bared his teeth in very uncomfortable smile.

“I know who you are.” Levi grunted.

“I know that you know,” the blond assured him with calm voice. “But I need to say these things before we really start.”

The smaller man looked at him with intimidating eyes but Erwin stayed expressionless and continued. “Today is the 9th of October, Monday, and the man sitting opposite me is Levi Ackerman. This is our fourth time we meet for a session like this. Let’s start. How are you feeling, Levi?”

The raven-haired man tilted his head as if asking Erwin ‘Really? This shit?’ and then stared at Erwin with hard expression on his face but eventually answered: “Uncomfortable.”

“Why is that?”

“Because there’s a fucking camera filming me? Maybe?” Levi growled, crossing his arms across his chest in highly defensive gesture.

“I know it’s hard, but try to focus only on me, Levi,” Erwin said patiently. He decided he would put the questions of the crimes Levi witnessed aside for the moment. Even though they made a progress, he still didn’t have the younger man’s full trust and that was what he was going to focus on for now. “I want to ask you few personal questions. If you don’t want to, that’s fine we can always move to the other one. The only one thing I’m asking you is to try, okay?”

“Fine,” Levi shrugged.

“Alright so, I would like you to remember the first memory you have and try to tell me about it.” Erwin said his expression clear and calm, even though he noted how Levi’s jaws clenched at the request.

His eyes sparkled with a memory but the only thing he said to Erwin was: “Another one.”

Erwin didn’t question Levi’s decision but continued with another question: “Alright, do you remember going to the primary or secondary school?”

Levi grounded his teeth, now in clear display of aggression. “Another.”

“Do you remember where you lived until you met Kenny?”

“Why the fuck are asking these questions?!” Levi growled loudly as if he was a wounded animal and got on is feet, his instinct to fight-or-flight kicking in.

“Levi,” Erwin spoke in soothing voice: “I’m not here to upset you, I’m here as your psychotherapist. I’m trying to make you remember something Kenny probably tried to make you forget.”

“He didn’t do anything like that!” Levi bared his teeth. His fist were clenched and his whole body was tense, ready to jump on the threat, namely Erwin.

The first thing, Erwin had to do, was to free Levi of the denial that had built again in the last two days.

“Alright, then let me ask you another one,” Erwin licked his lips before looking Levi in the face again, careful not to in the eyes since the younger man could read it as a challenge and that was the last thing the blond needed. “Have you ever tried to run away from Kenny when you lived with him?”

The younger man looked him in the eyes, hard, before he parted his lips to say: “It was a mistake and-”

“Have you…“ Erwin waited until Levi closed his mouth again before he continued. “... ever tried to run away from Kenny when you lived with him?”

For a minute, they just stared into each other eyes, Erwin with composure, Levi with anger, before the younger man spit: “Yes. I fucking tried. But I shouldn’t have don-”

“Levi, whether you should or shouldn’t have is a topic for later-” _Of course you should, Levi_. “- Another thing I’d like you to tell me is what you felt during this attempt or attempts.”

Levi lowered his eyes for a second and then, awkwardly, sat back down in the armchair. “I…“ Levi started but stopped immediately, his eyes were distant, far away from the safety of Erwin’s living room. It took him few more minutes before he was able to say something more, but Erwin was a patient man, he could wait for Levi to open up. “Everything was as usual, I think. He fell asleep on the couch and I was to wash the dishes but suddenly… suddenly, I just thought ‘I gotta get the hell out of this place. I don’t wanna be here anymore.’ and tried to take the keys to the door. He woke up so I punched in the panic and ran to the door. Just when I opened them he grabbed me by my hair and pulled me back, slamming the door shut. After that, he punished me and lock me in my room.”

Of course, Erwin knew that there had to be time when Levi was probably alone with Kenny. Isabel and Farlan ran away from the children’s home when they were relatively old. “What these punishments usually included?”

Levi showed Erwin teeth in something that definitely couldn’t be described as a smile. “What do you think? He beat the shit out of me and then locked me in my room.”

Erwin barely managed to stop the anger before it could appear on his face. “How often have you been punished?”

Levi shrugged but looked down on the floor in submission that he was probably taught while living with that man. “Not too often. It depended a lot on me behaving. Sometimes I behaved so he left me alone, few times he actually was nice enough to give me a second helping of meal. But most of times I was stupid and did something to piss him off. I talked back, I stared at him or didn’t look at him enough, or my walk was provoking. That was usually when he was slightly drunk.”

Erwin fight the urge to clench his fists at the anger that was burning his way up on his spine. “Levi, do you remember what I told you at Friday during our… walk?”

Levi nodded.

“Good.” Erwin said. “Now, do you still think that Kenny’s a good man? Even after all these things he had done to you? Compare what he did and what I told you about a healthy relationship.”

Levi frowned at him intimidatingly and wanted to say something, but Erwin was already getting better at reading the younger man, so before he could say anything, the blond continued: “I know you want to say me that I’m just trying to manipulate you into not liking him, right? But Levi, the only thing I’m asking you to do is to think by yourself, not by something Kenny beat into you to think. Kenny’s not here and he won’t hurt you anymore, I’ll make sure of that. Give me your answers, not answers Kenny’d like you to give me.”

The raven-haired man stared at Erwin, still a bit trying to find something that would show the blond was going to betray him “I don’t know.” Levi finally said, seeming to be in the middle of inner struggle.

Erwin patiently waited for him to say anything more for few more minutes but when that didn’t happen he said: “He had no right to treat you like an animal and… No, scratch that, Levi, he treated you worse than an animal. And nothing you could’ve ever possibly done or say would excuse his actions. I know that it must be hard for you to hear these words, but you’re a victim.”

There was denial in Levi’s eyes but his pupils moved, letting Erwin know that the younger man was thinking about it. That had been a progress.

The blond looked at Levi, trying not to pay attention to Levi’s sharp and somehow still round edges of his face. He looked so vulnerable right now but Erwin knew better. Levi wasn’t a delicate flower. He was strong; strong enough so that he after only few weeks without Kenny, had already been thinking the man _might_ be the monster which the monster really was, while most of the victims would be still defending the abuser.

Stockholm syndrome wasn’t a thing that could be simply ‘shaken off’. It might take months or years for people to truly believe the abuser were at fault.

Erwin decided to take the risk. “Now, Levi, do you remember the address where you and Kenny lived?”

Levi looked at him with wide eyes and his lips parted but nothing came out. He was terrified. Erwin didn’t let on any of the fear he felt at the idea of Levi having a panic attack, and quickly, but not too quickly because fast speech would only deepened Levi’s terror, said: “Levi, try to stay calm. There is nobody here except for you and me and I showed you all the doors leading out of here.” Sometimes, it helped to let the people know they had a way to escape - it was one of the reasons why Erwin was careful not to sit between Levi and the door. “You’re safe here.”

“It’s not me I’m scared for,” Levi snarled angrily. Once again, he let his fear out through aggression and anger.

Erwin thought about what Levi just said for few longs seconds before he realized, with heart beating fast, what Levi meant. “You think Kenny would be able to hurt me if I went there?”

“Of course he would,” the younger man growled. “He’s dangerous.”

Erwin imagined how Kenny must’ve looked in Levi’s mind and an image of a huge monster came to his mind.

The blond couldn’t help but feel a bit flattered that Levi was worried about his safety. He smiled friendly and tried to assure him: “Levi, I’m not a fool. I would never go to his place on my own. And even if I did, I might not seem like it but I’m very capable to look after myself.”

Levi looked Erwin with very unconvinced expression on his face, but he sounded more calmly this time when he said: “He’s not like others, Erwin.”

It was probably the first time Levi said his name. It sounded so sensual and teasing with Levi’s voice coloring it, like a curse that bounded Erwin with ropes of desire and made his blood rushing in his veins. His heart started beating even faster. He never thought a simple vocalization of his own name could had such impact on him.

The blond just smiled and looked at the ground, feeling uncomfortable looking Levi in the eye after thinking about the raven-haired man calling his name on completely different occasion, and said: “As a psychologist, I can tell that nobody is like anyone. I’m not like others, you are not like others, simply because we’re humans. Everybody is different.”

Levi made another _tch_ sound before adding: “It doesn’t change the fact that Kenny’d wipe the fucking floor with you.”

Erwin decided not to argue and only nodded while saying: “And that would be exactly why I would go in there with a team of specialists and not alone.” Levi still seemed unconvinced so Erwin continued: “I promise nothing will happen to me while I’ll be there, Levi.”

Levi rolled his eyes, clearly irritated, and said: “Whatever. The address is 475 at Green Elk Crossing.”

Erwin repeated the address few times in his mind to make sure he remembered it and then, with gratitude in his voice, said: “Thank you, Levi. I think we’re done for today. Would you mind if tomorrow we’d have another session?”

Levi shrugged. “I don’t care.”

Erwin smiled and turned off the camcorder. He didn’t want to stress Levi with too many questions but he still planned to ask about his friends’, Isabel’s and Farlan’s, deaths tomorrow.

The blond put the tripod back to its place and went upstairs for his laptop. When he came back, Levi was sprawled in the armchair again, slowly finishing the reading of his book and the TV was back on.

Erwin slumped into the couch, took the camcorder and copied the interview with Levi on the laptop. After that, he made another copy on his USB flash drive. He was very thorough about these kind of things.

He put the laptop and USB on the coffee table, the camcorder away and turned to Levi. “I need to let my friend know about the address so I’m going to call him.”

Levi raised his eyes from the page. “You mean that huge blonde mutt?” he growled.

Erwin let out a short laugh at the image of Mike in a dog costume. “Yeah, that’s him.”

The smaller man didn’t say anything else and got back to his reading.

Erwin raised up from the couch and walked to the kitchen, where he pulled the phone out of his pocket and dialed Mike’s number.

The first thing Mike snarled at him was: “Finally!”

“I just had another interview with Levi,” Erwin chose to follow Mike’s example and got straight to the point. “He gave me an address where we can find Kenny. I’ve got the whole interview on USB flash drive and my laptop. The address is 475, Green Elk Crossing. Can you get a search warrant from Zackly until tomorrow?”

Mike was silent for few seconds, soaking Erwin’s words in. “I can definitely try. What time is it…? Okay, I’ll be at yours as soon as possible so have it ready for me? Getting the warrant will be the first thing I’m going to do tomorrow morning. Did you make him talk about the Ripper’s blood on his shirt?”

Erwin clenched his jaw. “No. Not yet. I think it’s still too soon to talk about it.”

“Damn it, Erwin,” the taller blond cursed. “It’s been too long since Ripper’s last murder. He’s gonna strike again soon. I can smell it in the air.”

“I know, trust me, I know,” it frustrated Erwin as much as it did Mike but there was little they could do right now. “But this needs time. Levi will open to me completely after he knows he’s safe and with that man still out there, he’s not going to feel safe.”

Mike stayed silent for a while before he finally sighed. “Fine. I’ll get the warrant. I’ll see you soon.”

“Thank you,” Erwin said but he wasn’t sure if Mike heard him because just as soon as Mike finished his sentence, the psychologist heard beeping sound in the phone.

It hadn’t been even twenty minutes and Mike was on his porch, knocking on the door. They barely exchanged greetings and goodbyes, Erwin just handed him the USB and went back to the house.

* * *

 

The next day, Erwin had only two sessions with his patients in the morning but he said Levi he didn’t know when he was going to be back home. Mike called him during the time between the sessions, letting him know that he got the warrant and they’d pick him up when he was ready.

Erwin expected that. It was the reason why he unusually had taken a cab in the morning to get to work.

While he got into one of the cars that were heading towards the Kenny’s place, he noticed that everyone except for him, was already in bulletproof west with their guns in holsters. He sat in the back of Hange’s car to see he had already his own prepared on the seat next to him.

He gave Hange and Moblit thanking smile, took the jacket of his suit off and put the bulletproof vest on. After he was wearing both the vest and holster, he finally fastened his seat belt.

Green Elk Crossing was a part of the city that had been one of the worst in the Underground. There were a lot of thugs and gangs, everybody was hanging out on the streets and everyone had at least one gun while looking intimidatingly on all visitors who weren’t from this part of town.

Hange parked the car, with roof lights still on, in front of a huge, two level house which stood near the crossway with abandoned gas station across the street. Its garden was overgrown with long grass, the fence was collapsed, the house’s windows were boarded up and the plastering that had fallen off long years ago.

“Are you sure he gave you this address?” Mike asked, completely ignoring the looks local people gave him.

“Yes,” Erwin nodded confidently.

“It certainly has a strange aura,” Moblit mumbled and the psychologist agreed.  He was absolutely sure that this had been the house Levi was kept in.

Together, they all watched the police officers bouncing on the door, asking whoever was inside to open the door. As they did that a small crowd gathered around the house, looking at whatever the police was doing.

Nanaba left them in that moment to go to talk to civilians. She had been the best at these things and people always found her trustworthy.

After few minutes, the police announced that they were going to use force, if the person in didn’t let them immediately.

The team disappeared inside the house for another few minutes, before the lead reappeared again and called at Mike: “All clear, sir!”

Mike nodded and they headed inside. Nana stayed outside, talking with an old lady.

As soon as Erwin entered the house, he fought the urge to groan. The whole place was empty and the smell of freshly painted rooms was in the air with a hint of bleach.

“Fuck me,” Hange cursed angrily, as they were turning on their flashlights just like the others, and touched one of the walls. It still hadn’t dried completely and it stuck on their fingers. “This is a fucking joke.”

Erwin walked deeper inside the house to see another, bigger room, in just the same shape. No furniture, no lights, no carpet. Only white walls and floor. There wasn’t even one single strain of paint on the floor. Everything had been precisely and professionally cleaned and it must had happened recently.

The blond felt frustrated as he went back to the hallway and through to another room that had to be a kitchen given the pipes which were sticking out of the walls.

“Hange? Do you think your forensic team will be able to get some evidences out of this place?” Mike asked, sounding extremely gloomy.

Hange clicked their tongue. “I hardly doubt that. I’m pretty sure this place had been cleaned through and through. It looks very professional.”

“If he could’ve afford cleaning like this, why the hell was he living in this hole?” Moblit asked the question that had already played in Erwin’s mind when they got to the bathroom which was also completely clean.

The house had been huge and it would took much longer for one person to clean it like this. Every single room looked alike, including one small pantry.

 Nanaba joined them after few minutes of desperate walking back and forth. “I just spoke to a neighbor. She said that the man who lived here moved out about a week ago and shortly after strange, five men came here wearing protective suits, spent the entire day here and left again. According to her, the man lived here with his some young teenagers but neither of them were very sociable. She doesn’t even know what their names were.”

“At least something that can confirm Levi’s versions.” Mike murmured, still gloomy and turned to Hange. “I need you to check this place. Look for anything that could be a lead to someone who lived here.”

“Roger that,” Hange mockingly saluted and took out their phone to call the rest of the forensics.

“Do you mind if I took some pictures?” Erwin asked slowly. “I want to show them to Levi and see if he can tell us which room was which?”

His friend nodded and Erwin got to work. He took few pictures of every room in the house but they mostly looked all the same.

After Erwin finished, Mike scratched the back of his neck, frustrated at the nothing they found here, and looked at Erwin. “I don’t think there’s anything else you can do.”

Erwin nodded, feeling just as helpless as his friend. “I know. I’ll go home now.”

The shorter blond told his goodbyes to his friends, took off the bulletproof vest and holster and left. Erwin weaved his way through the small crowd, ignoring questions about what were they doing here, and called a cab.

He didn’t told the driver his own address but decided to take a walk at his way home, to clear his head. Kenny lived in one of the poorest quarter of the city, yet he still had enough money to hire men in protection suits to clean his house to get rid of evidence. Maybe he just lived there to keep a low profile. With first one and then three kids, he lived with, it would be hard to do that and being unnoticed in a richer part of city. Everyone knew that in the Underground nobody ratted on anybody.

But where did he get all those money?

Erwin sighed and kept walking. The sun was slowly getting down and before he was in front of his house, it was dark. When he entered, he was met with unusual silence. The lights in living room, just as the TV, were off. He thought that perhaps Levi went to sleep or was showering.

The blond didn’t really feel like talking to anybody right now and the only thing he wanted to do was to take a shower.

He climbed the stairs and frowned. Lights in his room were on and the door was open. Erwin slowly and silently walked across the corridor and looked inside.

Levi was kneeling in front of Erwin’s opened wardrobe, his beautiful nape on display for Erwin to see, his face covered by a dish towel used as a cleaning mask. On the floor next to him was a bucket and few cleaners in spray bottles.

Erwin was just about to open his mouth to ask him what he was doing here, when his heart stopped in his chest for a second, only to start beating rapidly. Levi, obviously, took out few things out the blond’s wardrobe in an attempt to clean it but it weren’t just clothes.

In front of Levi laid on the ground laid things like bondage harness, cuffs, floggers, and some more of Erwin’s… equipment. The smaller man was currently holding nipple clams in his hands.

It looked like Levi took everything he could out of the wardrobe and now was looking at it.

Erwin wanted to laugh in hysteria. It was one of those moments he wasn’t sure how to proceed. Just when he wanted to call Levi’s name to let him know he was there, the raven-haired man glanced over his shoulder.

It was as if the time stopped. Neither of them was really sure how long they stared at one another, both of them still too shocked to actually move.

Then Levi broke the eye contact, looked back at Erwin’s… playthings and then at the blond again with absolutely terrified look in his eyes.

Erwin swore internally. This was going to be bad. 


End file.
